Tuesday, March 23, 2004
The big importation question
[Peter Brownfield, "Pressure Building for Drug Importation," Fox News, 18 March 2004.]
This news story reveals the increasing intensity of the debate over importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The big question is: will allowing importation lead to the collapse of the U.S. drug industry, or the Canadian health care system?
Importing drugs would save Americans 30 to 300 percent of the cost, but industry sources say that with this discount come fewer safety controls and a risk to the development of new life-saving medicines.
As baby boomers inch toward retirement and rising medical needs, politicians on both sides of the aisle are looking for ways to lower drug prices without risking future drug research and development. The easiest fix — allowing Americans to import drugs from Canada, Europe and elsewhere — also creates safety concerns, say opponents, and would create an imbalance in the American market.
[See the archived blog entry, "The positive unintended consequences of allowing reimportation," 25 February 2004.]
[Peter Brownfield, "Pressure Building for Drug Importation," Fox News, 18 March 2004.]
This news story reveals the increasing intensity of the debate over importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The big question is: will allowing importation lead to the collapse of the U.S. drug industry, or the Canadian health care system?
Importing drugs would save Americans 30 to 300 percent of the cost, but industry sources say that with this discount come fewer safety controls and a risk to the development of new life-saving medicines.
As baby boomers inch toward retirement and rising medical needs, politicians on both sides of the aisle are looking for ways to lower drug prices without risking future drug research and development. The easiest fix — allowing Americans to import drugs from Canada, Europe and elsewhere — also creates safety concerns, say opponents, and would create an imbalance in the American market.
[See the archived blog entry, "The positive unintended consequences of allowing reimportation," 25 February 2004.]
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