As commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Kevin Concannon has an interest in appearing undaunted by the threats from some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to make Mainers pay for their decision to ask for fair drug prices. But bravado probably had little to do with his recent observation that the companies’ decision to halt direct sales to Maine gives Congress even more reason to pass a bill that allows drug shopping in Canada.

Bristol-Myers and Astra-Zeneca this week joined SmithKline Beecham in deciding to try to punish Maine for having the nerve to say it wanted its citizens to be treated at least as well on pharmaceutical prices as the citizens of other countries. The companies say they no longer will ship their products directly to Maine, but will force the Maine wholesale drug buyers to purchase the products out of state.

All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation support proposals to make it easier for Americans to buy medication in Canada, where prescription drugs are 30 to 70 percent less expensive. Rep. John Baldacci is a sponsor, along with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, of the House bill, which allows for the re-importation of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration and produced in FDA-approved facilities. The legislation covers both individuals and pharmacies, making the drug companies’ threat to take wholesale drugs out of Maine meaningless. Both House and Senate legislation have been supported in their respective chambers and now await passage as amendments to Agriculture appropriations bills.

The drug companies, of course, are fighting to kill this legislation, although they are likely to have a harder time now that their reputations suffered in a new congressional report showing how the companies had manipulated wholesale prices to maximize profits for doctors. The doctors got a break from the companies if they purchased certain drugs, but the drug companies listed a higher price, which the doctors got back from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Brand loyalty assured, the patients lost out again.

If you’re wondering when you, and not just the medical establishment, are likely to get a break on drug prices, it could be as much as two years, which is the time the FDA says it needs to make sure the drugs that are being re-imported are safe. Meantime, you might take the advice of Vermont’s governor, Howard Dean, a physician who this summer joined the group United Health Alliance in describing how the alliance developed a program among its doctors to connect with pharmacies in Canada. The physicians fax orders for their patients; the pharmacy mails the prescriptions to the doctors’ offices, making the prescription no longer a prescription, but a doctor’s supply order. The loophole is apparently legal, though some might conclude it violates the spirit of the prohibition.

And if this arrangement seems too complicated, the easier path is over the Internet, where Canadian companies offer to fill drug orders at prices guaranteed below U.S. retail prices. Maine’s law requiring drug companies to negotiate lower prices for people without drug coverage seems mild in comparison.

Even mild remedies, however, can produce unhealthy reactions, as drug companies are proving with this law. And having lost in Maine while losing in Congress, drug companies now are making themselves sick over the thought of letting uninsured Americans have the same low medication prices as the rest of the world.