Dems Quash Drug Import Bill

Big pharma 1, seniors 0.

Maybe it should come as no surprise that Senate Democrats halted debate on whether to legalize the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. President Obama cut a deal with the big drug companies earlier this year: Pay $80 billion over 10 years and Democrats won't try to extract any more concessions through health reform. That also won the support of pharmaceutical makers for the president's reform plan.

So when Democratic leaders delayed the vote on the bipartisan amendment to the reform bill Thursday, some senators called them out on it.

“People are walking on eggshells. If we pass legislation allowing people freedom to import drugs, the pharmaceutical industry might not support the health care bill,” Senator Byron Dorgan, the North Dakota Democrat co-sponsoring the amendment tells the New York Times.

The import measure has strong backing from the AARP, the country's largest association of seniors. The group funded a study last month showing brand-name drugs used by Medicare patients rose 9 percent over a year, far outpacing inflation.

The import issue is important to U.S. companies like Pfizer Inc. as well as European drug makers like GlaxoSmithKline Plc and AstraZeneca Plc. Pharmaceutical companies don't have to contend with price controls in the U.S. and net big profits here.

The drug companies say they're concerned about counterfeit drugs making their way into the U.S. if importation is legal. As it stands now, Americans order drugs through mail-order pharmacies in Canada that charge considerably less for branded drugs. While the practice is illegal, it's not clear how well the feds police it.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg weighed in on the subject recently, sending a letter to the Senate expressing her concerns about counterfeit or contaminated drugs.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates Dorgan's amendment would save the government $19 billion over a decade because its bill for medicines would be much lower.

“U.S. consumers are charged the highest prices in the world for drugs that sell for a fraction of the price in most other countries,” Dorgan tells the Times. “My amendment includes strong safeguards to prohibit drug counterfeiting and other practices that would put the consumer at risk. It applies only to FDA-approved prescription drugs produced in FDA-approved plants from countries with comparable safety standards.”