Congress
is paying
lip service
The Senate favors importing cheaper drugs from Canada, and voted Friday to make it so. That is, if the secretary of Health and Human Services considers the foreign drugs to be “safe.”
None of Secretary Tommy Thompson’s predecessors ever considered Canadian drugs safe; Thompson doesn’t consider them safe and says he never will.
Under these circumstances, why did the Senate bother to take precious time to make a formal amendment to the Medicare prescription drug bill and vote to permit reimportation of drugs? It unfairly raised seniors’ expectation that they could one day more easily buy drugs from Canada.
Thompson specifically alerted Congress before the vote that the Food and Drug Administration “has serious concerns about proposals that would open America’s borders to a stream of imported prescription drugs” that it had no control over.
No control?
That’s hardly the case.
The FDA has complete control over the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Drugs are made here, shipped to Canada and sold. Americans just want to be able to ship them back across the border.
Does Thompson suspect that the pharmaceutical industry might be manufacturing inferior drugs for sale in Canada? If so, he should assign regulators to descend on U.S. manufacturers and halt the practice instantly.
The U.S. cannot condone two-tiered prescription drug production, a safe tier for Americans and “not safe” for everyone else. If the FDA deems prescription drugs safe for Americans, they must be considered safe for all.
Seniors are savvy consumers. They are extending their buying power by comparing prescription drug prices in the U.S. and Canada. As many as one million elder Americans who are able to access lower prices are doing so and they’re doing it safely because the drugs they’re buying are made in the U.S.A.
The Senate, aware of Thompson’s reservations, could specifically permit the reimportation of drugs manufactured in the United States since we must presume these FDA-controlled products are safe. There are also dozens of drugs manufactured in other countries that are FDA-approved for sale in the U.S., and the Senate could further name these drugs as eligible for reimportation since the FDA has deemed them safe.
It would be the logical and fair thing to do.
That said, the pharmaceutical industry has poured tens of millions of dollars into the political well that is Washington, D.C., to ensure its continued hold on American consumers.
Does the Senate have the resolve to push industry influence aside and allow reimportation?
Or is lip service the best Congress has to offer sick and tired consumers?
Decent brake
We are deep into construction season, a time when contractors make the most of long days and thawed ground.
Parts of Route 2 are under construction. So are parts of Route 219. Main Street in Norway is being repaved. Plourde Parkway and East Avenue in Lewiston are, too.
As flagmen and women work, keeping traffic moving, they are in more danger than almost anyone in nearly any other occupation because motorists don’t always slow down and use caution in construction zones.
We all have an obligation to obey signs posted in construction areas. Construction workers are virtually unprotected and human flesh and bone are no match for inattentive drivers and speeding cars.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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