Sunday, October 12, 2003

From the Indianapolis Star:
A bitter pill for drug makers
Before selling a patented drug in Canada, even the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world come calling on a small government agency in downtown Ottawa.

Working out of a 19-story office tower, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board wields control over prices on the more than 900 patented drugs sold in Canada.

From the Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette:
Seniors look north of the border to ease prescription-drug costs
The math is simple and irrefutable. Fixed incomes plus unaffordable drugs equal Canadian pharmaceutical imports.

From just a few million dollars in 2000, the importation of price-controlled drugs from Canada has grown to a projected $800 million this year and shows no signs of letting up.

That’s because people who do not have prescription drug insurance, primarily senior citizens on Medicare, are seeking to avoid the sometimes crippling cost of buying medicine they need. Consumers can save up to 85 percent of the cost of the same drugs purchased in the United States.

From WTHR (IN):
More centers offering prescription drugs from Canada
"How much does it cost?" asked Marge Collins. "For my husband and I, our prescriptions for a month run about $300 and we are on Social Security and that's tough."

Canada Drug Service opened in Indianapolis in response to that very frustration. They showed up in town just two months after the RX Depot. Both are small businesses that help people buy brand name drugs from Canadian pharmacies at prices far lower than if bought in the U.S.

From the Barre Montpelier (VT) Times Argus:
Douglas receptive to reimporting prescription drugs
Gov. James Douglas, like a growing number of his counterparts nationwide, supports the notion of allowing people to buy their prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

And while the first-term Republican stopped short of endorsing a scheme that would put state government directly into the reimportation business, he stressed that his reluctance to do so stems solely from the fact that it’s against the law and not from any philosophical opposition to a practice that is at the heart of a national debate over the cost of drugs.

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