From the Sacramento Business Journal:
Oh, Canada! Stores selling cheap drugs can't beat HMOs
A storefront in Carmichael that sold prescription drugs from Canada at cut-rate prices has closed its doors due to lack of business.

Another medicine-from-Canada venture on Arden Way continues to operate but demand has slowed to roughly four or five patients a day.

The dream of making big bucks by helping desperate patients get cheap drugs from Canada hasn't panned out in Greater Sacramento because most people here have insurance that gives them a better deal.

From Newsday (NY):
A cross-border drug supplier is reborn
Our thanks to reader Bud S., formerly of Commack, now of Lake Worth, Fla., who led us to discover that one of the pioneers in helping Americans gain access to Canadian prescription drugs has shut down, partly because of pressure from the Bush administration.

In this case, the administration speaks with forked tongue. For while the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services try to prevent us from buying Canadian drugs, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson says that if Congress passes legislation to allow it, he'd tell the president to sign.

From the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press:
FDA calls Minnesota drug plan 'irresponsible'
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says a Minnesota program to eliminate co-payments for state employees who buy low-cost drugs from Canadian Internet pharmacies is "irresponsible" in terms of consumer safety.

The program "encourages your citizens to seek medications from outside the safety net provided by U.S. drug laws designed to ensure consumer safety," William Hubbard, U.S. Food and Drug Administration assistant commissioner for policy and planning, wrote in his second letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican.

From the Globe and Mail:
Internet drug sales may cause Canada pain
A new willingness in the U.S. Senate and Bush administration to legalize on-line drug imports from Canada is beginning to rattle through the corridors of Parliament Hill.

''Six months ago, Ottawa's position was this was an issue for Americans to solve: namely, reducing the cost of drugs in the U.S.,'' said one drug industry official.

"Now, with the reality of legalized imports from Canada, it's suddenly become a Canadian issue."

From the Sacramento Bee:
Assembly OKs Web site to help Californians buy cheaper Canadian drugs
Responding to consumer complaints about the high cost of prescription drugs, the state Assembly voted Wednesday to create a state Web site to help Californians buy cheaper medications through Canadian pharmacies.

By a 48-17 vote, lawmakers sent the Senate a bill by Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, that would require the Department of Health Services to set up the site by July 1, 2005.

It would require the Web site to include a comparison of prices charged in California and Canada for the 50 most commonly prescribed brand-name medications and to list links to Canadian pharmacies that meet requirements designed to ensure the drugs they sell are safe.

From the Tallahassee (FL) Democrat:
FDA suggests inspection program for Canadian pharmacies
After months of hammering Minnesota over its program that helps people buy low-priced prescription drugs from Canada, the Food and Drug Administration is offering the state an opening.

In a letter sent this week, FDA Associate Commissioner Bill Hubbard asked Gov. Tim Pawlenty if he would be willing to participate in an inspection of Canadian pharmacies with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

The suggestion came at the end of a letter in which Hubbard chastised the governor for a new state program that allow state employees to obtain certain prescription drugs for free if they order from a state-inspected Canadian pharmacy.

From KTLA-TV (Calif.):
Drug Firms Say, 'No, Canada'
The name they picked is Cures, but the drug makers, biotech millionaires and pharmacists who founded the group aren't searching for the next miracle drug.

They are looking for votes from the California Legislature.

The lobbying group is just one of several altruistic-sounding entities with financial links to the drug industry that have materialized around the Capitol. They want to kill a flood of legislation — including four measures being voted on this week — that would ease the way for drug imports from Canada.

From CBC.ca:
Massachusetts senators push state website for Canadian drugs
Massachusetts would create an official website to help residents buy lower cost prescription drugs from Canada under a plan approved by the state senate on Thursday.

The proposal requires Gov. Mitt Romney to seek a U.S. government waiver to create a new Office of Pharmaceutical Information in the Department of Public Health, to provide information to residents about how to buy safe, inexpensive prescription drugs from Canada. The office would be required to establish relationships only with Canadian suppliers that have been licensed by the Canadian government.

Supporters said the plan will help cash-strapped seniors and others struggling with the spiralling cost of medicine.

From the Globe and Mail:
Physician, heal thy handwriting
Patients who visit Alan Brookstone's doctor's office in Richmond, B.C., are noticing a dramatic difference in the prescriptions he is writing these days: They can read them.

That's because Dr. Brookstone's prescription pads have gone missing. The familiar sound of their doctor's pen scribbling a note to a pharmacist has been replaced by a quiet tapping, as he pecks a plastic stylus against a metal object slightly larger than a sheet of paper and about two centimetres thick.

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:
Potomac Watch: Debate on prescription drug imports is how, not if
The debate over importation of cheap prescription drugs from other countries has shifted here from arguments about whether the practice should be done to how it should be done.

The House already has passed a bill to further legalize and regulate importation and several bills are working through the Senate. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised a floor vote on the issue this year. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has said government approval of importation is "inevitable" and even industry opponents concede defeat.

"We started sensing (a shift) beginning early this year," said Robert Falb, congressional affairs director for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, the industry group for wholesale distributors of prescription drugs.

From the Louisville (KY) Courier Journal:
Buying medicine abroad backed
Almost two-thirds of Kentuckians want the federal government to make it easier to buy prescription drugs from Canada and other countries, according to The Courier-Journal's Bluegrass Poll.

Sixty-three percent of the 811 adults surveyed May 5-11 said they favor a change in federal policy to facilitate such drug purchases.

"My aunt is 82 years old, and she pays hundreds of dollars for her medications," said Carolyn Gore of Louisville, a poll participant who agreed to an interview about her views.

From the Toronto Star:
Medical errors affect 1 in 13
One in every 13 patients treated in hospital is at risk of suffering an unintended injury or complication that results in death, disability or delayed hospital discharge, according to the first study of "adverse events" in Canadian hospitals.

About 185,000 patients are harmed while being treated in hospital each year, with between 9,000 and 24,000 patients dying after experiencing a surgical accident or medical oversight.

The numbers are probably an underestimate, said Dr. Peter Norton, co-author of the research and head of the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary.

From WKYT-TV (KY):
Poll: 63% Want Drug Purchases From Canada
A majority of Kentuckians want the federal government to change policy and make it easier to buy prescription drugs from Canada and other countries, according to a newspaper poll.

In a Bluegrass Poll conducted by the Courier-Journal between May 5-11, 63 percent of 811 adult respondents said they would favor such a change in federal policy.

From the Tallahassee (FL) Democrat:
Canadian imports may be an option
Leon County may be looking north to Canada in hopes of lowering its prescription drug costs - even though doing so would violate federal law.

Commissioner Bob Rackleff is asking county staff to explore the feasibility of a program allowing the county to purchase medicine from Canada. Commissioners will vote on whether to proceed with the idea during a meeting tonight.

Although Congress has banned importing drugs from other countries, Rackleff said the federal government has not prosecuted people or governments that do so. Cities such as Montgomery, Ala. and Springfield, Mo., and states such as Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin have such programs in place, he said.

From the Phoenix Business Journal:
Kyl defends opposition to Canadian drug imports
Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is questioning the reliability and safety of Canadian prescription drugs that fellow Arizona Republicans want to allow into the U.S. market.

There is growing support at the state and federal levels to lift Food & Drug Administration restrictions on less expensive Canadian drugs into the U.S.

Arizona Sen. John McCain is one of the leading advocates of drug importation and Valley GOP Congressmen J.D. Hayworth and Jeff Flake also back such a move. The aim is to offer less expensive prescription drugs in the face of skyrocketing costs. "

From the Globe and Mail:
Net pharmacies think global in battle to keep supply flowing
Andrew Strempler wants Americans to know that he still has cholesterol-lowering Lipitor for sale.

''We've been running with a one- to two-week stock of Pfizer products and six weeks of non-Pfizer,'' said the president of Minnedosa, Man.-based Mediplan Health Consulting Inc., one of Canada's largest Internet pharmacies.

Even though drug giant Pfizer Inc., which makes Lipitor and a basket of other blockbuster drugs, is spearheading a campaign to strangle the sale of low-cost Canadian drugs to Americans, Mr. Strempler claims his two plants are still dispensing 2,000 to 2,500 prescriptions a day at an average value of $225 (U.S.) to $250 each.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Canadian pharmacies fill prescriptions with unapproved generics, group says
Three Canadian pharmacies have filled some Wisconsin residents' prescriptions with unapproved generics instead of the brand-name drugs that actually were prescribed, the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin has charged.

The pharmacies are listed on Wisconsin's state-sponsored Web site for buying drugs from Canada.

The three pharmacies also have mailed drugs that require refrigeration, such as insulin, the trade group said. Drugs requiring refrigeration lose their potency if not kept cool, the society said.

From the Montreal Gazette:
Pharmacies look to quash prescription drug companies' blacklists
Four Canadian pharmacies have filed complaints with the federal Competition Bureau to stop drug companies from blacklisting them as part of an effort to quash cross-border Web sales.

From the Globe and Mail:
Prescription needed for pharmacist shortage
Ron Elliott has been a pharmacist in St. Thomas, Ont., since 1985. While he says he loves his job, he's found it has become more demanding over the years.

Like many Canadian pharmacists, particularly in rural areas, Mr. Elliott often finds himself short-staffed. In fact, he only recently succeeded in filling one of two vacancies he has had since August.

"My average week in the dispensary has grown from what used to be about 30 to 35 hours a week to now, averaging between 55 and, some weeks, 70 [hours]," he says. "I pick up the extra shifts when we're short."

From the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal:
Growing numbers turn to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs
For about three months, Charles Wingfield has been ordering his prescription drugs through Discount Medicine of Canada, a store located off Grant Line Road in New Albany, Ind.

The Louisville retiree said he figures that buying Canadian drugs for his breathing and blood pressure has saved him about $100 over that period.

"I am delighted with it," said Wingfield, 76. "That fits very well in my wallet."

From Bloomberg:
U.S. Senate to Hear Testimony on Importing Drugs From Canada
U.S. senators will hear testimony today about the safety of importing drugs from Canada as support grows among Republican and Democratic lawmakers to legalize purchases from countries where drug prices are lower.

Senators including Republicans Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Charles Grassley of Iowa, and a group led by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan and Maine Republican Olympia Snowe are pressing to legalize imports to reduce medical costs for state employees, retirement programs and the elderly.

From the Fort Wayne (IN) News Sentinel:
Coleman to push safety provisions in bill to allow drug imports
Sen. Norm Coleman said he would abandon his opposition to the importation of cheaper prescription drugs if a new bill includes a set of safety provisions he will introduce this week.

Coleman, R-Minn., has long argued against importing drugs from countries such as Canada because he said the safety of the drugs could not be guaranteed.

On Wednesday, he said he was hopeful that his safety proposals would be adopted into legislation being prepared by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who chairs the Senate Health Committee.

From CBC.ca:
Access to Canadian internet pharmacies subject of U.S. lawsuit
Manitoba's internet pharmacies are at the centre of a class-action lawsuit being filed in the United States.

The Minnesota Seniors' Federation and other plaintiffs claim that nine major drug companies have conspired to block the supply of drugs to Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies that sell them to Americans.

From Minnesota Public Radio:
Seniors group files lawsuit over Canada imports
The suit claims the drug companies are conspiring to limit drug sales to any Canadian pharmacy that sells prescription drugs to Americans. Chicago-based attorney Marvin Miller filed the suit with the help of the Minnesota Senior Federation. He's asking the court to make it a class action suit, so it would include all affected consumers, not just the three plaintiffs named in the filing. He says consumers would benefit if drug companies allowed cross-border sales because of increased competition between American and Canadian pharmacies. Miller says he's seeking attorneys' fees, unspecified damages and a stop to the companies' anti-import efforts.

"We believe that they did meet, that they did confer and that they implemented a policy or policies to threaten to cut off the supply of pharmaceuticals to Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies when those prescription drugs would come back into the United States," Miller says.

From Reuters (UK):
Canada Mulls Re-Export Curbs on U.S.-Made Drugs
Canada is considering controls on Internet pharmacies that re-export U.S.-made drugs to the United States, Canadian government and industry sources said on Wednesday.

"I can tell you an export control list and export taxes have been discussed twice so far this year at the cabinet level," one source said. Three other sources corroborated that a committee of cabinet ministers discussed those options and that the ideas remain under consideration.

Large U.S.-based drug companies have warned Canadian pharmacies that ship lower-cost medicines to U.S. patients to halt the practice or risk being cut off.