Thursday, September 11, 2003

From the Oakland (MI) Press:
Company sells drugs from Canada
American Drug Club, based out of Point Douglas Pharmacy in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, sends prescription drugs to Americans from five different pharmacies. The business has 360 stores in the United States. The company has 13 sites in Michigan, including a Dearborn store that opened Wednesday.

The stores are not pharmacies but offices with staff members and fax machines to help Americans order prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. Customers must pay with checks, credit cards or cashier's checks, and the prescriptions are sent to their homes. The 4-year-old company also fills prescriptions from regional Web sites.

From Up and Coming Magazine (NC):
Re-imported Drug Ban Should be Overturn
The federal ban on re-imported prescription drugs has turned ailing senior citizens into criminals and dramatically inflated the cost of medicine. This is price-fixing by the federal government, plain and simple. In an attempt to further enrich the pharmaceutical industry, politicians are gouging senior citizens and interfering with every American's right to buy products from wherever they choose.

From the American Prospect:
Remember the Maine
The passage of Maine Rx triggered an almost instant federal court challenge by the drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which alleged that the law violated the Constitution's commerce clause and federal Medicaid law. After nearly three years of holdups, the U.S. Supreme Court tentatively ruled in May that Maine could proceed with the program. The state has since retooled its law, now dubbed "Maine Rx Plus," to make it more legally sturdy. Meanwhile, the battle shifts elsewhere, as other states, responding to the Supreme Court's green light and the lobbying of activist coalitions, have sought to craft their own versions of Maine Rx. In response, PhRMA seems prepared to crack open an almost bottomless war chest. According to industry documents obtained by The New York Times, the association will spend a stunning $48.7 million over the next year on state-level lobbying alone.

From the Indianapolis Star:
Study backs the effectiveness of new Lilly drug
Half the women in a urinary incontinence study reported significantly fewer episodes of leakage while using an experimental drug from Eli Lilly and Co.

The study results, to be released today, also showed that 62 percent of women taking the Lilly drug duloxetine reported an improvement in their incontinence condition. That compared to 40 percent of patients taking a sugar pill who reported their condition improved.

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