Canada believes it is too small to facilitate U.S. wholesale importation of lower-cost drugs. This post will explore a much greater potential for importation from the European Union.
Opponents of
Americans buying less expensive drugs from overseas pharmacies (i.e. personal
importation) often rely on the common belief that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration exemplifies the “gold standard” in drug safety. This “gold standard”
importation talking point from the
Pharmaceutical and Researchers of America (PhRMA) fuels Americans’ fear of ordering medication
internationally despite proof that importation can be very safe and provide
financial relief and better adherence to prescriptions:
“The United States is the gold standard when it comes to regulating the safety of our medicine supply. Importing medicines from countries that do not have our same strong standards could taint our medicine supply.”
The first sentence
is something you are supposed to take at face value. The second sentence is
deceptively broad: as in, yes, importing medicines from countries that do not
have our “same” standards could taint our medicine supply. Not
necessarily, but it could.
A new Chinese law (in effect as of December 1, 2019) makes third-party
online platform medicine sales legal, appropriately ends a draconian definition
of counterfeit drugs, and effectively decriminalizes personal drug importation,
but with a lot of gray! The changes were part of a major overhaul of the Drug Administrative Law
of the People’s Republic of China (DAL). The previous linked to page is in
Chinese but you can use Google translate to read it in English or another
language. A summary in English can be found here:
Left to Right: Ron Andruff, Aria Ilyad Ahmad, Oki (Okiomiteni) Joy Olufuye, Gabriel Levitt.
I’m writing to you from Berlin, Germany on Thanksgiving and I’m missing my family. But it was important to be here. I came to attend and participate at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). At the IGF, people from all over the world delve into an assortment of internet issues that impact the lives of people everywhere. Very broadly, the topics covered related to free speech, privacy, competition, security, child safety, nationalism, protecting democratic elections, and the reason I was here: discussing and promoting access to safe and affordable medicine on the Internet. Attendees and participants are affiliated with international governmental organizations, national governments, non-profit organizations, activists, businesses, journalists, and a wide array of policy professionals focused on internet governance.
What is internet governance? I like this definition from Georgia Tech School of Public Policy:
“Internet governance refers to the rules, policies, standards and practices that coordinate and shape global cyberspace.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is just one agency out of the many that make up the United States Department of Health and Human Services and, from PharmacyChecker’s relatively small (non-regulatory) role of helping verify online pharmacies to protect public health, I’ve learned just how insanely massive its mandate is. I’ve also witnessed and participated in its criticism, and with good reason: the agency is not honest or forthcoming about personal drug importation; its drug approval process is “inherently biased”; due to the “revolving door,” the FDA is too cozy with Big Pharma; and many other things. Wikipedia has an extremely long page aptly called Criticism of the Food and Drug Administration, much of it having to do with its role with prescription drugs, and less so other sectors, such as food, tobacco and cosmetics.
Whily my advocacy initiatives implore the FDA to bring more balance, commonsense and fairness to regulating and providing consumer education about personal imports of prescription drugs, I’ve realized that I should practice the same in how I talk about the FDA. So, without further ado, a moment of praise amongst the criticism:
Millions of people are dying because they are not getting the healthcare they need and that includes prescription drugs. New research has made a slam dunk case for why international online pharmacy options are needed urgently. We can’t allow drug companies to continue fooling the public about drug importation.
A Gallup
Poll survey announced yesterday found that 34 million Americans know
someone who died because they could not afford medical treatments. That doesn’t
mean prescription drug affordability specifically was the cause. In fact, the
Gallup Poll lacks details about what kinds of medical treatments were too
expensive. However, the poll identifies that a rising percentage of Americans
are reporting going without prescriptions because of cost: from 18.9% in
January to 22.9% in September of 2019. That would be about 58 million Americans
who say they did not fill a prescription in the past 12 months because of cost.
Since pharmacies in other countries charge much lower prices, and properly
credentialed international online pharmacies make those drugs available, the
veracity of the title of this blog post is undeniable.
There are few people more supportive than I am of prescription drug importation as one policy to help Americans access lower drug prices. But, since I accuse Big Pharma types and the FDA of ignoring reality about the safety of personal drug imports from licensed pharmacies in Canada and other countries, I won’t ignore reality! Canada is concerned about momentum on drug importation coming from the Trump administration and states, particularly Florida, citing its relatively small population and limited drug supplies. The answer is not to pull back on importation, but to expand the scope of countries in the supply network.
As reported in Reuters earlier this week, the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. stated that she is “sympathetic to U.S. concerns regarding affordable prescription drugs.” On the other hand, she said, “Not only are we too small of a market, Canada cannot increase its domestic pharmaceutical drug supply to meet U.S. demand…” It’s not incredibly cynical of me to suggest that drug company lobbyists, who work internationally, have spoken with Canadian diplomats and said, “Look, we’re not going to increase your supply of far less expensive medicine just so Florida’s state importation plan can work and Trump can get a political win.”
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