LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR DRUG IMPORTATION BILL AGAIN

A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers have reintroduced legislation from the last congressional session that would allow limited importation of prescription drugs.

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) reintroduced the "Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act" last week. The bill had been introduced last session but stalled out in committee.

The bill would allow individuals to directly order medications from outside the U.S. when ordering from an FDA-registered and approved Canadian pharmacy. The FDA would examine, register and inspect these facilities on a frequent basis. It would also allow U.S.-licensed pharmacists and wholesalers to import FDA-approved medications from a number of major industrialized nations and pass along the savings to their customers.

"We want to put downward pressure on the price of prescription drugs," Dorgan said in a statement. "Currently, the big drug manufacturers can monopoly-price their medicines here, and, as a result, American consumers pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs."