Op-eds: Canadian and American regulators, law enforcement and patient advocates oppose drug importation
Since 2000, every head of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has opposed drug importation because the benefits that might be gained are far outweighed by the many dangers. Law enforcement, patient advocates, pharmacy groups, and regulators agree.
In this editorial by Terry Wilcox published in Inside Sources on April 18, 2019, Terry Wilcox, executive director of a patient advocacy organization advices federal and state representatives that allowing drug importation is not the right policy solution for America’s high prescription drug prices…
In this editorial, which was published in Colorado Politics on April 17, 2019, Don Bell, a 30-year veteran of Canadian law enforcement and border protection, warns that Canadian drug importation will open the U.S. to counterfeit medicine and exacerbate drug shortages in Canada.
The editorial board of the The Wall Street Journal published this editorial on April 15, 2019. In it, they write:
“The argument that drug importation threatens the integrity of the drug supply is often dismissed because pharmaceutical lobbyists make it. But keeping the drug supply free from contaminated or counterfeit products is not easy, and the World Health Organization has warned that 1 in 10 medical products in the developing world are phony. It isn’t clear who is liable if counterfeits are found in Florida, but you can bet it won’t be the politicians.”
In this editorial, which was published in The Gadsden Times on April 11, 2019, former FDA-OCI director George Karavetsos points out the real dangers of drug importation:
“Even today, Americans are being hurt and even dying because of counterfeit medications being imported into this country. Adding insult to injury, while some might point to Canada as being a safe source, counterfeit medications are transshipped through Canada from other countries in remote corners of the globe.”
This editorial by Dan Fucarino was published in Florida Politics on April 1, 2019. Mr Fucarino is the owner and a pharmacist at Carrollwood Compounding Center & Pharmacy.
“The monetary rewards of Canadian prescriptions are just not worth their safety risks,” he warns. “I urge Florida legislators to listen to health care experts on this issue rather than the understandable populist appeals and vote no on this dangerous legislation — and then get back to working on more productive ways to lower drug prices for Floridians. Thousands of Americans have been injured or killed by imported prescription drugs.”
In this March 28, 2019 editorial for the La Junta Tribune-Democrat, Maine pharmacist Amelia Arnold explains her state’s experience with drug importation: “It is a concept that makes big promises in terms of quality and cost savings that it cannot, and will not, deliver on for the people of Colorado.”
These dangerous drugs get trafficked into Colorado and present a clear and present danger to unsuspecting citizens, who can die from simply ingesting what they think are safe medications. Importing foreign drugs would open a loophole, which increases the chance these dangerous counterfeits enter America unbeknownst to us all.
Counterfeits coming from Canada have been a big issue in the Sunshine State. The FDA has identified dozens of counterfeit drugs coming into Florida from foreign pharmacies.
“Several other states have attempted to legalize drug importation, but all have failed to show that it’s safe or saves money. The federal government has determined multiple times that drug importation can’t be done safely. I hope, for the sake of Floridians, that state policymakers come to that same conclusion.”
In this editorial, published in The Missouri Times on March 11, 2019, Gregg Keller warns that “the issue at hand is not so much the safety of Canadian drugs but the dangers of the global drug trade. Often, pharmacies that claim to be “Canadian” are anything but.”