Florida, Texas and 29 other states
cracked down on imports of cheaper drugs from Canada by closing
storefront operations and disciplining doctors and pharmacists
involved, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy said.
Americans spent more than $1 billion on medicines from
Canada last year, where government controls keep drug prices as
much as 77 percent lower than in the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration warns consumers against importing prescription
drugs, saying it can’t ensure their safety. Drugmakers including
Pfizer Inc. also oppose the practice.
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States are “extremely concerned” that federal legislation
to allow Americans to buy medicines from Canada would undermine
their enforcement efforts and “create chaos,” the pharmacy
group’s executive director, Carmen Catizone, told reporters in
Washington. The U.S. Senate is considering at least three such
proposals.
Catizone said the fact that 19 states, including New Jersey
and Illinois, have failed to take enforcement action doesn’t
indicate any division among the group’s members.
Florida health officials recently ordered the closure of at
least nine businesses offering drugs from Canada. The state has
seen an increase during the past three years in the number of
storefront pharmacies that sell drugs from countries including
Canada, said Michael Jackson, executive vice president of the
Florida Pharmacy Association.
A Florida storefront advertised a hundred 100-milligram
tablets of Pfizer’s painkiller Celebrex for $69.06, compared with
$178.29 for the same drug purchased locally, Jackson said.
The Food and Drug Administration would be prohibited from
enforcing its ban on importing drugs from Canada and other
countries under an annual spending bill approved by the House
Appropriations Committee June 23. A similar provision the committee
approved last year was stripped during negotiations with the
Senate on a final bill.
Bloomberg News
