Affordable drugs

The buses of Maine seniors heading across the Canadian border to purchase prescription drugs should tell legislators all they need to know about the rising cost of pharmaceuticals here and nationwide. They can do something about this, or at least get the drug lobby’s attention, with legislation they will hear this session.

The prescription drugs purchased by Mainers in Quebec are identical to the ones sold in this state — same approval from the Food and Drug Administration, same brand names, same quantities and dosages — with one exception. They cost, on average, 30 percent less in Canada and, for some drugs, 60 or 70 percent less. For people who pay $100, $150 or $200 a month for drugs, the savings could be considerable. The savings could mean the difference between affording all the drugs a senior might need to take to remain healthy or playing drug roulette — in which seniors are forced to guess which drugs they need to survive and forgo the others.

The first question lawmakers should ask is whether they consider prescription drugs a necessity of life and, if they do, follow it up with the question implied in LD 2523. Why do Canadians pay so much less than Americans do for American-researched drugs? It’s not the pharmacies — their markup is small, a couple of percentage points. But consider the results found by Stephen Schondelmeyer, dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. He found that drug companies spent, on average, 15 percent of the retail price of a drug on actually making the product, 15 percent on administration, including taxes, legal work and lobbying, 20 percent on research and development and 30 percent on marketing. Between 10 and 30 percent during the last few years was profit.

It isn’t hard to figure out that drug companies can afford to sell drugs far less expensively in Canada — of anywhere outside the United States, for that matter — and still make a profit; they could, for instance, advertise less or take those dreary “government in the medicine cabinet” lobbying ads off the television. Even within this country, HMOs, hospitals, government agencies and others get various levels of discounts from the drug companies. LD 2523, sponsored by Sen. Chellie Pingree, requires that Maine residents get a similar break, either the price paid by Quebec residents or the price list for the federal supply schedule, whichever is cheaper.

This is an issue better settled at the federal level, so prices are closer to uniform for all states. But Congress has been timid about suggesting that the pharmaceutical industry take any steps that might impinge on its record profits. If states such as Maine are forced to do the work of Congress to provide senior citizens with life-saving prescription drugs they can afford, the Legislature should stand behind the Pingree bill.