Top Doctor: Drug Imports Not Safe

Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona said Tuesday that there would be significant challenges to importing prescription drugs safely from Canada and other countries.

In an Associated Press interview, Carmona said drug makers made compelling arguments during a forum Monday that legalizing importation would make it easier for drug counterfeiters to market unsafe products.

"We were not aware of the extremely robust counterfeiting system," said Carmona, who is chairman of a government task force investigating whether drugs can be imported safely and cost effectively. "I understand that corporate America is going to want to keep their stake in the market. But some of the evidence they presented, irrespective of their stake in the market, was compelling."

Carmona said he has not closed the door to finding a way to make importation legal, but he said the panel needs to make sure any program would guarantee patient safety.

Prescription drug makers during Monday's session delivered a sweeping condemnation of proposals to import cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, saying it would be unsafe, would lower incentives to market generic drugs and would increase prices in other countries.

"Importation is neither a panacea nor a long-term solution to our country's need for meaningful and affordable prescription drug coverage within health insurance," said Johnson and Johnson executive John Dempsey.

Opening the country's borders to drugs that require only partial Food and Drug Administration inspections or vary from FDA-approved drugs would allow counterfeiters to "contaminate our drug supply earlier in the process," he said.

The task force is planning three more forums and a public hearing, and will hear from city and state officials who are currently allowing employees to buy drugs from Canada.
By Lolita C. Baldor