FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg criticized a proposed amendment to the healthcare bill which would enable the importation of cheaper prescription drugs.
"Dr. Hamburg acknowledged that while the current legislation does have provisions to improve the safety of imported drugs, they don't go far enough," says ACSH's Jeff Stier. "We have to give Commissioner Hamburg credit, because by opposing drug importation, she is going against the politics and sticking with the science."
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees: "The data shows that a significant fraction of imported drugs allegedly from Canada, but which actually come from countries in Asia and the Mideast are substandard, counterfeit and sometimes actually toxic."
"While we are gratified that the Obama FDA did come down on the correct side of this issue, we should point out that the reason they offered for doing so is of secondary importance," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "The fact is that what is disastrous about drug importation is that it's the same as importing price controls. U.S. pharmaceutical companies innovate and create drugs, and sell them cheap to Canada. Then Canada sells them back to us at their price-controlled rates. Every country that has price controls for its pharmaceutical industry has seen their innovative pharmaceutical companies whither."
For more information on drug importation concerns, see Dr. Ross's article "Unsafe at Any Price" on TCSDaily.