Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19209

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Silverman E
Bills Would End DTC Tax Break & Allow Importation
Pharmalot 2011 Feb 22
http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/02/bills-would-end-dtc-tax-breaks-allow-importation/

Full text:

Call it congressional deja vu. Last week, a pair of bills that previously went nowhere were again introduced and both take aim at brand-name drugmakers. The first, called the Say No to Drug Ads Act, would eliminate tax breaks for direct-to-consumer advertising and was introduced by Jerry Nadler, a Democratic Congressman from New York who failed to enlist any co-sponsors.
The rationale for his repeat effort is that DTC ads allow drugmakers to “keep prices artificially high, steering consumers – and physicians – away from generics…It’s bad enough that TV drug ads mislead consumers and tout benefits of high-priced drugs without properly conveying the risks, but the drug companies don’t need extra subsidies to do so,” he says in a statement. (You can read the bill here).
Meanwhile, the other bill, which is called the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, would allow licensed pharmacies and wholesalers to import FDA-approved meds from countries with safety standards equivalent to what is found in the US and Canada. This is only the latest attempt to revive the notion of importation, which would permit Americans to obtain drugs from across the border and was introduced by two US Senators – Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Maine’s Olympia Snowe.
Whether the bipartisan proposal, which has 18 co-sponsors, has any legs is unclear, especially since importation has been shot down before over concerns about diversion and counterfeit meds. You may recall that, little more than a year ago, a White House advisor noted that President Obama supports “safe re-importation of drugs into this country. There’s no reason why Americans should pay a premium for the pharmaceuticals that people in other countries pay less for. The president is committed to moving forward once we resolve the issues that the FDA has. That’s his responsibility, to protect the American people” (back story).
Nonetheless, the senators remain adamant this approach will help consumers. “The fact that the exact same FDA-approved drugs are a fraction of the price in Ontario defies common sense,” Stabenow says in a statement. “Our bill allows Michigan pharmacists to do business with Canada and other industrialized nations so they can offer customers the exact same medicines at the best prices.” (You can read the bill here).
UPDATE: A PhRMA spokeswoman sends me this statement: “Prescription drug importation is unsafe, could compromise the US drug supply and potentially expose patients to dangerous counterfeit medicines from abroad. Two Secretaries of Health and Human Services, under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, have not been able to certify the safety or cost-savings of these types of schemes. Independent reports also found that intermediaries – importers – would not pass along savings to consumers…
“What’s more, several efforts by states and cities to get savings from importation programs were complete failures that often cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The programs were eventually shut down by state and local governments for this reason. Importantly, the driving force behind the call for importation has been significantly reduced – and this is in large part due to the widely successful Medicare Part D program that provides more than 38 million seniors and disabled Americans access to prescription drugs.”