by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 13, 2020 | Politics and policy
Trump’s executive order on drug importation directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to grant waivers expressly allowing personal drug importation. Unlike most of his executive orders, this one is fully consistent with federal law [18 USC 384(J)] (“Part J”). During the executive order signing ceremony a few weeks back, HHS Secretary Alex Azar bragged about Trump’s willingness to move forward on personal importation:
“Presidents before you have promised over and over again to allow importation; the safe importation of drugs from lower cost countries, you’re the first present to deliver on it.”
Not so fast! The executive order does empower greater action on Part J but a next step is where the rubber hits the road. What Americans want now, Republicans and Democrats among them, is to receive those waivers!
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by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 7, 2020 | Drug Prices
Congress is on my mind this week. There’s a lot of talk on PharmacyCheckerBlog about Big Pharma doing this and Big Pharma doing that to keep drug prices high in America. Most often, I aim to expose them for outright lying or exaggerating about the risks of buying cheaper meds from foreign countries using online pharmacies. Criticism of the FDA follows a close second, and in large part due to Big Pharma’s outsized influence on the agency. But who could really enact change? Congress!
This week, we at Prescription Justice announced the new Congressional Report Card on Drug Prices. Our team graded all members of Congress on their action and inaction on drug prices. I’m intensely proud of these efforts. If Congress passed laws that led to lower drug prices in the United States, then Americans would not be forced to obtain medication in other countries – at least not to the extent that they have to now. The lifeline of safe international online pharmacies is important, but it should not be in such great demand.
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by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jul 28, 2020 | Drug Importation
Originally published on PharmacyChecker.com.
Three executive orders were signed by President Donald Trump last week. One of them is all about drug importation: measures already underway and new actions to help Americans buy more affordable prescription drugs from other countries. It has the potential to help many millions of Americans who are sick and tired of high drug prices or can’t even afford the medications prescribed to them.
The executive order states that the “Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, take action to expand safe access to lower-cost imported prescription drugs by…”
Stopping right there, before listing the stated actions, you should know that it’s not accidental that the executive order uses the word “expand” when referring to safe access to lower-cost, imported prescription drugs.
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