Editorial: Canadian drugs under fire

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

The enormous savings to consumers when they buy prescription drugs from Canadian rather than U.S. pharmacies has prompted many states, including Nevada, to establish safe ways for consumers to take advantage of the price disparity.

Here, a program to send state inspectors to four Canadian pharmacies and license them to do business with state residents was approved by the 2005 Legislature. One 76-year-old Las Vegas resident told the Las Vegas Sun last month that she saves about $200 every time she refills her allergy medicine.

Deals between states and Canadian pharmacies have been ongoing for years, even though they violate federal law. Although pharmaceutical companies, which were losing money because of the deals, complained loudly, the practice had always, if unofficially, been considered benign by federal enforcement agencies.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week, however, that since November the federal government has been cracking down on the deals. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, in cooperation with Food and Drug Administration officials, are confiscating prescription drugs mailed from Canada to U.S. customers when they find them.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, whose support of the Canadian drug bill played a big role in its passage, was quoted in the Journal article. She said she has heard of a "handful of cases" in which drugs bound for Nevadans have been intercepted.

Federal officials are saying that the seizures are to protect American citizens against the possibility of receiving fake drugs from unscrupulous suppliers. We do not think it is coincidence that this is the same argument that the pharmaceutical companies are using in opposing the deals.

The pharmaceutical industry is poised to lobby heavily against bills passed by both houses of Congress that would stop such federal seizures. We hope Republican leaders, who side with the industry, will for once listen to the people instead of special interests and allow the bills to be reconciled and passed into law.