From Foreign Countries
What follows is part of an article published in 'The Washington Post', Tuesday, July 11, 2000. 
"House Blocks Drug Import Curbs" 

Amid growing public resentment of high prescription drug prices, the House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to prevent the government from discouraging the purchasing of drugs in Canada or other countries where the medicines are cheaper....The FDA sometimes sends warning letters to those caught doing it. 

The [Food and Drug Admin] gives its employees discretion to permit import of drugs that violate its restrictions so long as they are intended for personal use. 

The House approved 363 to 12, an amendment to an FDA appropriations bill that would prevent the agency from enforcing the importation ban.... A second amendment, approved 370 to 12, would bar the agency from sending warning letters." 

When this is actually signed into law it may affect the way you do business as it effectively removes most import restrictions as long as the drugs are "intended for personal use."

HOUSE VOTES TO PROTECT PERSONAL PRESCRIPTION MAIL ORDER 
From Foreign Countries
What follows is part of an article published in 'The Washington Post', Tuesday, July 11, 2000. 

"House Blocks Drug Import Curbs" 

Amid growing public resentment of high prescription drug prices, the House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to prevent the government from discouraging the purchasing of drugs in Canada or other countries where the medicines are cheaper....The FDA sometimes sends warning letters to those caught doing it. 

The [Food and Drug Admin] gives its employees discretion to permit import of drugs that violate its restrictions so long as they are intended for personal use. 

The House approved 363 to 12, an amendment to an FDA appropriations bill that would prevent the agency from enforcing the importation ban.... A second amendment, approved 370 to 12, would bar the agency from sending warning letters.

"When this is actually signed into law it may affect the way you do business as it effectively removes most import restrictions as long as the drugs are "intended for personal use.

"Drug re-importation makes sense to seniors 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Charlotte Walton, 66, was one of dozens of seniors who used to travel by bus to Canada to buy her prescription drugs at a fraction of the cost. 

"There, I saved half the price of what I would have paid here in the United States," Walton said. 

A congressional amendment passed by the Senate on Wednesday will allow Walton's local pharmacist to re-import her prescriptions from Canada at the cheaper price the Canadian government negotiates for its national health care patients. 

ALSO Senate votes to lift Cuba trade sanctions

Walton says the bill will help many seniors who are having trouble paying for their prescriptions. 

"My husband worked five years past his retirement to put a few bucks away so we could live comfortably," she said, "but that isn't going to last long with the price of drugs they have right now.

"But the man who organized the bus trips that helped Walton get cheaper medications, John Marvin of the National Council of Senior Citizens, is skeptical the drug companies will go along with the measure. 

"I just don't think that they are prepared to give up the profits that the American market represents," he said. 

Marvin said there are several ways for drug companies to get around the bill. 

"One way is to clearly limit the amount of drugs going into Canada," Marvin said. "A second way is to require FDA (Food and Drug Administration) inspections of all the drugs being re-imported into this country, even though they are being made in this country.

"Republican lawmakers defended the bill, saying they have closed as many loopholes as they possibly can. 

"The drug companies don't like this bill, and the reason they don't like this bill is they think it's going to be effective," said Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington. 

But Clinton Administration officials say the only way to guarantee seniors the relief they need is to allow them to band together under Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for the same kinds of discounts insurance companies and the Canadian government have. 

Charlotte Walton says she's never understood why she and other seniors have paid so much more. 

"It makes me angry, and I've heard a lot comments on it that other people feel the same way," she said. "Why can't we get it?"

Everyone complains about the cost of medicine. On a Consumer Alert, NBC10's Tracy Davidson has found a way some people are saving money. One local woman says she saves about $2,000 a year on her prescription medicine and you could too. Here's how. 

WHITEMARSH TWP., Pa. - Like many of us, Emilie Higgins from Whitemarsh Township has medicines she must take, some for the rest of her life.

"I take the statin drugs," Emilie said. "I take heart medicine, two forms of that. I take a very effective drug for women for the back." 

But unlike most people, Emilie doesn't get her prescriptions around the corner. She gets them halfway around the globe, over 1,600 miles away in …, Canada. She says prescription drugs have become too expensive here in the U.S. But now, to get her cheaper prescriptions, Emilie doesn't even have to leave her home. 

"The prices were up to half," she said. "Most of them were half. Some of them were 35 percent off the price that I pay in the U.S.A.

"Emilie buys her medicine on the Internet..." 

"I mail it (her prescription) to them, and then I get it right to my house," she said. "That's it. We're done." ... 

..."It takes about two to four weeks for the drugs to be delivered. In Canada, the government has a cap on prescription prices. That's why the very same drugs we buy here are so much cheaper across the border. .......

"Dr. Dan Hussar is professor of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He worries there can be problems with buying prescriptions from an Internet pharmacy.

"If that pharmacy is not in a position to identify potential drug related problems, because of the remoteness of the patient from the pharmacy and from the services, that individual could actually be very poorly served if the medication provided, even if they couldn't afford it otherwise," Dr. Hussar said."... ........

"If I wasn't getting it the way I'm getting it now, then I would have to borrow from my daughter," Emilie said. "I would probably do without it or take half of it, I know some people who do that.""...

"I have no prescription coverage, everything buy comes out of my pocket"

JAMES, WHO ASKED THAT WE NOT USE HIS LAST NAME, SAYS HIS BLOOD PRESSURE DRUGS WERE COSTING TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR.

SO LIKE A GROWING NUMBER OF AMERICANS, HE'S HEADING FOR THE BORDER: THE CANADIAN BORDER.

HE'S NOT DRIVING, BUT RATHER MAIL ORDERING HIS PRESCRIPTIONS FOR BIG SAVINGS.

James says: "I save about 44 percent., which is well over 200 dollars every 3 months."..."

..."THE SAVINGS ARE REAL, ACCORDING TO THIS RECENT PRICE SURVEY BY THE VERMONT PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP.

-A REFILL OF TOMOXIFEN, A CANCER DRUG, 65 DOLLARS IN THE US, 9 DOLLARS IN CANADA.

-PRILOSEC, FOR ULCERS, 212 DOLLARS US, 53 DOLLARS CANADA.

-ZOCOR, FOR CHOLESTEROL, 70 DOLLARS US, 30 DOLLARS CANADA.

YOU CAN THANK TO CANADIAN GOVERNMENT PRICE CONTROLS.

John Matarese says: "THIS RUN FOR THE BORDER RAISES TWO BIG QUESTION: ONE, ARE THE DRUGS SAFE.

AND TWO, IS THIS LEGAL?"

Yes it is, its 100 percent legal.

IT'S O-K THANKS TO A LOOPHOLE IN U-S LAW.

THAT'S ACCORDING TO A NUMBER OF EXPERTS, INCLUDING FORMER OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE SHERROD BROWN, NOW A CLEVELAND CONGRESSMAN.

THE LOOPHOLE? A CANADIAN DOCTOR HAS TO WRITE THE PRESCRIPTION, BASED ONLY ON A MAIL-IN QUESTIONNAIRE.

Daren Jorgenson says: "The Canadian physician reviews the application for the medication, and determines if the patients should have it.

"BUT THAT LEADS TO THE SAFETY QUESTION.

CINCINNATI PHARMACIST MIMI HART SAYS A DOCTOR YOU DON'T KNOW IS WRITING A PRESCRIPTION WITHOUT SEEING YOU PLUS, SHE SAYS, PATIENTS CAN'T BE SURE IF THE MEDICINE IS CORRECT, OR THE PROPER DOSAGE.

Mimi Hart says: "They assume all of the the risk. There's no one to go back to and say this medication was bad, I don't think I got what I was supposed to get.

"BUT JAMES SAYS THE ONLY OTHER OPTION IS SKIPPING HIS MEDICATION.... SO HE'S TAKING THE RISK. 

I WISH I COULD RECOMMEND SOME SPECIFIC PHARMACIES.

UNFORTUNATELY, I CAN'T GUARANTEE THE SAFETY OF ANY OF THESE CANADIAN DRUGSTORES, SO FOR LEGAL REASONS, I CAN'T MAKE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS.

BUT YOU CAN FIND THESE PHARMACIES IF YOU SEARCH THE INTERNET..."

In Southern California many Americans get their prescriptions filled in Mexico because many drugs are cheaper there. Now the Internet is helping other Americans do the same thing in Canada. But are there risks?

IT'S NOT YOUR typical bus trip for a group of retirees from Tucson, Ariz. They are crossing the border to Nogales, Mexico, on what they jokingly call a "drug run," to a pharmacy, buying prescription drugs at a fraction of the price back in the United States. Many Americans are buying their prescription drugs in Canada or Mexico, or over the Internet. As NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports, they often pay 50% less than they would in the U.S.

But now there is another route to cheap meds: online. In Minneapolis, Steve Arundel doesn't leave his living room, buying over the Internet from Canada medication he used to pay $350 for every month"... now that price is cut in half. 

"The savings for one year is probably in excess of $2,000," says Arundel."Why is medication so much cheaper in Canada? It's because the government there limits what drug companies can charge. In the U.S. they charge what the market will bear.
Canadian pharmacies with Web sites can sell the same pills to Americans at up to 90 percent less. 

Just how much can you save? Stateside, a 90-day supply of the arthritis drug Celebrex sells for $197. In Canada, the same drug is $90. Lipitor, for high cholesterol is $241 in the U.S., $132 in Canada, and Tamoxifen, a breast cancer treatment is $287 in the U.S., only $28 in Canada. Advertisement.

Some doctors are even helping seniors get cheap meds, faxing prescriptions to Canada. Vermont's United Health Alliance even supplies the order forms. It's a grassroots effort, with some doctors ignoring U.S. law, unwilling to make their patients wait for lower drug costs."They can't wait, they can't wait," says Dr. Elizabeth Wenner, of the United Health Alliance. "They can die though. And I'm not gonna sit around and think that I waited or watched. I will do something to make a difference."

It's against the law to import drugs of any kind into this country. But in this case, the FDA is not prosecuting. Instead it is simply warning buyers to beware. "You don't know whether the country from which the drug is coming from has controls in place to ensure the product is safe," says Peggy Dotzel of the FDA. But consumers like Steve Arundel say that until prices come down, he'll buy Canadian. And he has this prescription for U.S. drug makers:"Quit digging your hand so deep in the cookie jar," says Arundel. "

"I discovered pharmaceutical prices had doubled in the past 10 years," he said. "And as you know, most seniors who are on Medicare have no prescription coverage." 

So he looked around for less expensive prescription drugs. He found them in Canada. "Everyone's seen the articles about seniors getting on buses and going to Canada but I believed there must be an easier way," said Bozarth. 

After carefully studying the law, he discovered it was possible to place orders over the Internet - as long as there was a prescription and a doctor in Canada willing to review it and write the same prescription.

"..."Carollee Hatch, 74, who is battling breast cancer, was one of the first customers. "In Canada, my tamoxifen would be $13.95, plus the $20 co-pay. Here in the United States I was paying $187! It's a tremendous savings," she said. 

Hatch also buys her husband Claude's medicines through the company and says she is saving enough money to take a vacation this summer. 

Sister Mary Kay Kottenstette, a 64-year-old nun and part-time Spanish teacher, is also sold on the plan. She is taking three medications to treat high cholesterol, gout and thyroid problems. "I have no health insurance, I only make $15,000 a year and I can't spend it all on medicines," she said. "Last year, I spent $1,068 on these three drugs; Lipitor, allopurinol and Synthroid. This year I'll be spending about $640. The savings are absolutely amazing!""

Programs make Prescription Drugs Available Free

It has often said that the best things in life are free and that expression can even be applied to something that's usually associated with a high price tag: prescription drugs.

As cost of prescription medications continues to increase, often making them unaffordable for people without insurance, the drug manufacturers themselves are helping get their products to the people who need them practically free of charge.

Many drug manufacturers sponsor what's called "patient assistance programs". These programs are intended to help those who otherwise can't afford prescription drugs-including people who are unemployed or lack health insurance, and seniors who don't have prescription drug coverage under Medicare- obtain the medications they need. In 2001 alone, patient assistance programs helped 3.1 million Americans fill more than 10 million prescriptions - with estimated value of $1.5 Billion.

Most people, however, including qualified doctors, nurses, social workers and other health professionals - are not even aware that these programs exist. Fortunately there is now a volunteer organization dedicated to pointing people in the right direction.

The Bureau of Prescription Help cuts though the red tape of application process by helping people enroll in patient assistance programs. It also helps to simplify the rules, guidelines and procedures, and expedite the submission process. Once patients are approved, the free medication is generally sent within two to three weeks.

Because of the organization's groundbreaking work in this area, physicians nationwide are currently distributing Free Medicine brochures to their patients. Even Social Security offices have brochures available to their constituents.

For more information or to apply, call (573) 996-3333 or visit www.freemedicine.com.

Senate Votes to Allow Drugs From Canada
The Associated Press

June 20, 2003, 11:25 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Friday to allow U.S. pharmacists to buy prescription drugs in Canada, where the same medicines sell for less, and resell them here, another attempt to drive down the rising cost of drugs.

The 62-28 vote attached the measure to the pending Medicare prescription drug bill moving through Congress, where approval in the House and Senate was expected by the end of next week.

Lawmakers, especially those living in states bordering Canada, have been pressing for the change for years, spurred in particular by senior citizens in their states who board buses to cross the border and buy cheaper drugs.

But the provision includes a measure that could prevent it from ever becoming law: It requires the secretary of health and human services to certify that the reimportation can be done safely. Congress passed a similar law once before, but former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala would not certify that it could be done without risk to patients. Her successor, Tommy Thompson, said the same.

That didn't stop the Senate from acting. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., successfully argued that Canada's safety controls were just as reliable as those in the United States and U.S. consumers have nothing to fear from drugs bought from Canadian pharmacists.

"If you believe it's unfair that we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, then vote for my amendment," Dorgan said.

Opponents argued that it poses a particular danger in today's age of bioterror threats.

"It opens a new door, a new opportunity, and it is a new threat to the security of the people of this country," said Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

The vote followed approval a day earlier of another strategy to drive down prices, overwhelmingly endorsing a plan to bring generic medicines to the market more quickly, 94-1.

"This is a very good day for consumers," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the generic drug provision was added Thursday.

The generic drug provision essentially codifies regulations issued by the Food and Drug Administration last week to make it more difficult for brand-name companies to block generic competition.

The provision also is designed to penalize generic drug companies if they enter deals in which brand-name competitors pay them to delay bringing the lower-cost alternative to market.

Off the Senate floor, a block of conservatives was lobbying to boost support for private companies. They see private insurance as the future of Medicare in delivering both drugs and routine health care.

Fearful that seniors would stay away from new managed care options being created by the bill, they want to pay private companies more, hoping the benefits would be good enough to attract a significant number of the elderly. They also released a letter to President Bush from 27 Republican senators asking him to help them make their case to GOP congressional leaders.

In the House, the second of two committees approved its version of a Medicare bill, defeating a series of Democratic amendments aimed at sweetening the benefits and reshaping the program. Approval by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on a near party-line 29-20 vote, sent the bill to the House floor for debate next week.

On Friday, Senators also planned to consider an amendment by Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., that would direct the government to offer a prescription drug plan for at least two years in areas where private companies show little interest. It's needed, they said, to add stability to the program.

"Our seniors could be forced in and out of plans, whipsawed from one plan to another, year after year," Conrad said.

The $400 billion, 10-year Medicare plan would, for the first time, give all seniors federal subsidies to buy prescription drugs, relying principally on private companies to deliver the benefit. It also would create a new Medicare managed care option -- preferred provider organizations -- which supporters hope would give seniors more choice while saving the government money.

At issue, though, is how much money the government will have to pay PPOs to attract seniors. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that, as written, the bill would attract just 2 percent of seniors into PPOs, though other estimates put it higher.

At a stormy closed-door meeting Thursday, Republicans led by Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona demanded more money for PPOs. They want payments to be based on competitive bidding by the insurance companies, not on the normal price of caring for a Medicare enrollee.

Some Democrats expressed concern, though, raising the prospect that a major change could undermine the bipartisan backing the bill enjoys.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he was well aware of the tension and was trying to walk a careful line. "I'm going to do my best not to let it be an extreme bill to the left or to the right," he said.

Frist had $12 billion not yet allocated to help solve this problem and one other: how to keep employers from dropping coverage for their retirees once the Medicare benefit kicks in.

The controversy set off a series of daylong meetings involving key lawmakers and Thompson, officials said. At day's end, Frist said he hoped for a compromise that would give Kyl and conservatives their way, but only after a delay of four or five years.

www.CanadianMeds.com