Questions remain after drug fact-finding trip

Monday, July 18, 2005 | 9:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Regulators with the state Pharmacy Board are still aiming for September to approve the first applications from Canadian pharmacies to sell lower-priced prescription drugs to Nevadans, but many questions remain unanswered.

Louis Ling, counsel for the board, said his two-day trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, last week was "productive," but he added, "We still need to learn a lot more."

Ling and Larry Pinson, incoming executive director of the Pharmacy Board, spent two days in Canada talking with government officials and others in an effort to see how the prescription drugs industry works in that nation.

Ling, who said he met with about 35 representatives from about 20 pharmacies in addition to government regulators, will report to the state Pharmacy Board at its meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday and Thursday.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she hoped the board initially would license "the reputable" pharmacies in Canada that are doing business in other states.

"Consumer protection is a main goal," said Buckley, who shepherded the bill through the Legislature that authorized Nevadans to buy prescription drugs from Canada by mail order in an effort to save money on the escalating price of drugs.

But the mechanics of licensing the pharmacies and other details will have to be worked out by the pharmacy board.

Buckley said the initial licensing by the Pharmacy Board could be a small number of pharmacies to get the program off the ground.

"We want to start with good firms," she said.

Ling said Friday he was not prepared to say whether the time schedule originally proposed for September for Pharmacy Board approval was "off or on." But he added, "I'm treating it as it is still on."

He hoped that the first applications from pharmacies in Canada would be ready for approval by the board. After approval, the staff of the board would inspect the stores, and if they passed the review, they could start selling drugs to Nevadans.

The state, Ling said, has to make sure of such things as where the drugs are coming from and who handles them.

The Canadian drug law was the final bill passed during the special session of the Legislature. It required the drugs imported from Canada be approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.

Keith Macdonald, executive director of the Pharmacy Board, says brand name prescription drugs are about 40 percent cheaper in Canada. But he said generic drugs were about the same price. The regulatory system in Canada is no different than the states in this country. It is "very structured," Ling said.

But mountains of details must be resolved before the Pharmacy Board ever approves the importation of drugs, Ling said. Among them is the possibility of needing new regulations to oversee the importation.

A federal law limits the importation of Canadian drugs to this country, but at least eight other states are allowing their citizens to buy them.