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Over-the-Border Drug Debate Heats to Boiling

BY Janice G. Inman
October 16, 2003

When Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois announced in mid-September that his state was considering buying drugs from Canada for its employees and citizens, the debate over cross-border drug purchases via the Internet and by other means, got even hotter than it was before. The pharmaceutical industry is fighting a battle similar in scope to the music industry's Internet copyright infringement war, but because no suits have been brought against 80-year-old diabetics buying insulin from pharmacies in Montreal, national debate on the issue of the purchase of foreign drugs has gotten less press of late than the debate over music piracy. Still, for the millions of purchasers of pharmaceutical products and the companies that manufacture and sell them, few subjects are quite as contentious or consequential.

Foreign companies are offering consumers in the United States both Internet and mail-order access to pharmaceutical products, which are often cheaper than U.S. drugs because of government subsidies and price controls. Canadian drugs, for example, are on average 67% less expensive than those sold in the United States. Americans can also easily travel over the Canadian and Mexican borders to buy their pharmaceutical supplies in person, even taking bus trips organized specifically for the drug purchaser. And although Canada is not the only country that provides Americans with access to foreign drugs, Canadian drug companies seem to be the biggest threat to American pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, largely because of their close proximity to the United States and the trust most Americans have in the safety of Canadian products.

Some drug makers, losing the profits that would normally come from the lucrative U.S. market, have attempted to fight back by choking the supply of drugs into the United States, but with limited success. For example, in January, GlaxoSmithKline announced it would stop selling its products to Canadian drug stores that sell to Americans, and AstraZeneca's Canadian arm has begun limiting the quantities of products it will sell to Canadian pharmacies, allowing them to buy only amounts that are in keeping with historical trends.

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