MIXED IMPLICATIONS FOR CANADIAN DRUG EXPORT BAN
In the face of Canada's potential upcoming ban on bulk prescription drug exports to the US, it seems unclear how the US would be affected by the move. US officials have insisted that such a ban would not affect the country's relatively few city and state import purchasing plans, while Canadian health minister Ujjal Dosanjh has not clarified whether individuals in the US would be entitled to the price-controlled imports.
Canada's drug prices are on average 40% lower than in the US, and bills currently pending in Congress could see wholesale and internet purchases of Canadian drugs freed -- a measure which both the Bush administration and now at least some Canadian officials oppose. At present, it is legal for Canadian pharmacies to send US citizens medicines after receiving a fax of a doctor prescription, but this is illegal in the US. However, the law remains widely unenforced.
US local officials insist that the potential ban, which would apply whenever domestic supplies reached "low" levels, would not substantially affect large schemes such as the CanaRx wholesale programme or Illinois' I-SaveRx plan, which allows the purchase of drugs on behalf of public sector workers.
However, Canadian officials have not clarified the fate of individual purchases by individual US consumers. The country is opposed to drug dispensing without direct personal contact between doctors and patients, and Dosanjh's suggested legislative changes would no longer allow the practice.
Growing numbers of US consumers are becoming angered by the US federal government's resistance to legalising prescription drug imports, while some also argue that local government structures are failing to use their bargaining power to drive down purchasing costs. For its part, Canadian government sources claim that the country has no intention of becoming a low-cost "drug store" for the US.
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