NEGOTIATE, DON’T IMPORT

It was predictable that U.S. governors and mayors who have looked to Canada as a source of lower-priced prescription drugs for their employees would express outrage at the recent announcement from that country’s health minister that the supply of medicines to American buyers should be slowed. The outrage, however, should be directed at U.S., not Canadian, officials for allowing a system where it is cheaper to get American-made drugs from foreign countries.

What is needed are negotiated prices, not re-importation schemes. The federal government already negotiates prices for medications for veterans and some cancer patients, and every other developed country does so. However, Congress two years ago passed a Medicare reform that forbids the federal government from negotiating lower drug prices.

Sen. Olympia Snowe has repeatedly introduced legislation that would give the health and human services secretary authority to negotiate lower drug prices for participants in the Medicare program. Such efforts have been strongly opposed by drug companies which argue that imported medicine may not be safe.

Now that Canada may restrict the flow of drugs to the United States, American consumers looking for cheaper medication are likely to turn to other countries with less pharmaceutical oversight. So much for safety.

Americans are increasingly crossing the border to go to Canadian pharmacies or ordering Canadian drugs over the Internet. Because the Canadian government regulates drug prices as part of its national health care system, prices are often half that in the United States for the same medication. An estimated $1 billion worth of prescription drugs are sent from Canada to the United States each year.

This prompted Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh to come up with a plan, announced last month, to limit the bulk sale of drugs from Canada to American consumers if supplies run low. Such a move could stop government programs, like that envisioned by the Penobscot Indian Nation, but would not prohibit the sale of individual prescriptions to American consumers.

“Canada cannot be the drug store for the United States of America; 280 million people cannot expect us to supply drugs to them on a continuous, uncontrolled basis,” Mr. Dosanjh said.

He’s right, but the Canadian move, which comes without any shortages

of prescription drugs for Canadian citizens, is likely to put the health of many Americans at risk. A New York-based Internet broker of cheaper foreign drugs told the Buffalo News that he had already turned to Australia, New Zealand and Britain for name-brand medicines. It is only a matter of time before other countries, with less government oversight of medication, are also involved.

It is the job of the U.S. government and Congress, not that of Canada, to safeguard American lives by making drugs more affordable.