Eli Lilly & Co Vows to Fight US Legislation That Allows Importation of Lower-Priced Prescription Drugs
As the cost of prescription drugs continues to spiral upward, the affordability and accessibility to prescription drugs and healthcare will likely be fiercely debated and may influence the outcome of the presidential election next November. Despite growing public concern over the cost of prescription drugs in the US, Eli Lilly has vowed to fight federal legislation that will allow Americans to import lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada, Japan, Australia and many European nations. Lilly spokespeople and their lobbyists in Washington DC argue that the policy would put consumers at huge risk of consuming dangerous and unsafe counterfeit drugs. Big pharma has been using the drug safety argument for the past decade or so to stifle drug importation legislation. That said, blocking prescription drug importation legislation has very little to do with drug safety and everything to do with profit margins and corporate stock prices.
The stakes of prescription drug importation are high for drug makers. In contrast with the US, most other countries keep drug prices low through government distribution programs and strict price controls. Because the US government does not control prescription drug prices, American typically pay two-thirds more than Canadians, 80% more than Germans and 100 per cent more than French residents for identical prescription drugs. Lilly and other big pharma companies contend that price controls for prescription drugs stifle innovation and competition (tell that to the European and Japanese drug companies). Currently, according to government and industry surveillance data only a tiny fraction of counterfeit drugs (about 5 per cent) actually enter the US market. But Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies argue that there could be enormous increases in the number of counterfeit drugs that enter the US annually if Congress relaxes the federal ban on imported prescription drugs.
Pharma’s counterfeit drug argument is a convenient scare tactic that it has been using to lobby against relaxing current drug importation legislation. What the drug makers don’t tell you is that they routinely import and sell drugs in America that are manufactured in foreign production facilities. Further, many of drugs that are sold in Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia are manufactured in the same production facilities that supply drugs that are sold in the US. This begs the question —if drugs are manufactured in the same foreign production facilities and one lot is sold in the US and the other in Canada, would American consumers really be at a greater risk if they bought a Company’s drug in Canada or the US? The answer to the question is a resounding NO–unless you believe that the Canadian Regulatory Agency is less competent at monitoring and approving drugs than the US FDA The real story is this–.counterfeiters stand to make much more money selling bogus prescription drugs in the US than in other countries because there are no price controls in the US (which means much larger profit margins for the counterfeiters–duh!)
Let me propose a solution to the prescription drug counterfeiting that is plaguing and threatening the safety of American–reduce the price of American prescription drugs to prices that are consistent with prescription drug prices in the rest of the world. This would provide greater access of prescription drugs to all Americans and reduce the need for some Americans to purchase prescription drugs from dubious sources because they can’t afford to buy them at their local pharmacies. Further, price controls would certainly reduce the incidence of counterfeit drugs in American because counterfeiters would no longer be able to command high prices for their products which, in turn, would seriously cut into their profit margins.
Despite the logic and simplicity of my proposal, don’t expect there to be any changes in prescription drug importation policies any time soon! Profits not drug safety or open access to life-saving drugs is what drives big pharma-this is American after all!!!
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Indiana) !!!!!!!!!
