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US cracks down on prescription drug free trade { July 6 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-usdrug0706,0,7134115.story?coll=ny-health-headlineshttp://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-usdrug0706,0,7134115.story?coll=ny-health-headlines
U.S., industry crack down on drug importation
BY DEBORAH BARFIELD BERRY
WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 6, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Irving and Charlotte Diton of Melville waited and waited this spring for their shipment of prescription drugs from Canada. It never came. Finally, the elderly couple learned that U.S. Customs had seized the $531 three-month supply of medicine.
"It's an effort to scare people off," said Diton, a 75-year-old retired electrical engineer. "Of all the things that customs has on their mind, this seems like this should be a pretty low priority."
Even as Congress considers legislation to legalize the importation of drugs from Canada, efforts by older adults to get those medications have become increasingly challenging, with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection continuing to confiscate some packages and drugmakers cutting off supplies to Canadian pharmacies and distributors who ship their goods to Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration is also clamping down on companies that help people buy Canadian drugs over the internet.
The biggest hurdle, say advocates, lawmakers and Canadian pharmacists, is the drug companies.
"They're doing what they can to put the squeeze play on," said Lee Graczyk, legislative director of the Minnesota Senior Federation, which sponsors monthly bus trips to Canada so senior citizens can buy drugs.
Recently, some Canadian pharmacists have had shortages of Pfizer drugs, Graczyk said. "It's sort of a roll of the dice in terms of whether it will be available or not," he said.
Other drugmakers, including GlaxoSmithKlein, have sent letters of warning to pharmacists and distributors, but Pfizer has been the most aggressive, advocates and pharmacists say.
Since January, Pfizer, one of the world's largest drug companies, has stepped up enforcement of its longstanding contracts with vendors that forbid them from exporting the company's goods to the United States, said Jack Cox, a spokesman for Pfizer, which is headquartered in Manhattan.
Last summer, Pfizer officials became more concerned about the increased traffic in prescription drugs from Canadia. In January and February, it sent warning letters to about 7,000 pharmacies and 22 distributors in Canada reminding them of the contract.
Most were in compliance, but the company, which makes popular drugs such as Lipitor and Viagra, cut off ties to about 100 pharmacies that weren't.
Pfizer also cut off supplies to two distributors who were selling to pharmacies that exported to Americans. Both stopped, and Pfizer renewed its ties.
Cox said Pfizer has not acted against pharmacies that sell its products to walk-in customers.
"It's the large-scale export of our projects" that have spurred action, he said.
Although it is illegal to import drugs, federal officials have not vigorously enforced the law until recently. With rising costs and Internet access, more senior citizens are buying cheaper drugs from Canada, which has government price controls. A Customs officials said Monday that it's usually "not a problem" if the drugs are limited to a 90-day supply and only for personal use. He could not say why the Diton's shipment was confiscated.
The FDA and drug companies oppose efforts to legalize the importation of drugs, citing safety concerns about counterfeit drugs and lack of oversight.
Cox said one goal of the stepped up contract enforcement is to "shore up the integrity of the supply system in Canada."
For now, Cox said, the steps "seem to be working."
Critics call those arguments bogus, saying many of the drugs are made in America.
Under a bipartisan Senate bill, drug companies would be banned from cutting off supplies to Canadian pharmacists or distributors who sell to Americans. Congressional passage of the legislation is far from certain and the powerful drug industry has vowed to vigorously fight it.
Meanwhile, the drug companies' actions are felt on both sides of the border.
A week before the ARA Connecticut Council of Senior Citizens was set to go to Montreal last month, it learned that the pharmacist with whom the group usually worked had backed out of plans to sell a busload of 52 senior citizens lower priced drugs.
In the wake of Pfizer's clamping down, the pharmacist was "frightened off," said Charlene Block, the group's president. "I can't say I blame him."
Block said senior citizens' access to affordable drugs won't improve even if Congress acts on reimportation legislation.
"Even if we get reimportation, if Pfizer and other drug companies refuse to let pharmacies or distributors ... sell to the United States, what good is reimportation?" Block said.
Companies that sell Canadian drugs to Americans acknowledge that Pfizer has been effective in reducing access to products. Afraid they will be "blacklisted," some suppliers are no longer selling them Pfizer drugs, said Dave MacKay, executive director of the International Pharmacy Association.
"They've been very aggressive in going after pharmacies that they suspect may be selling to us," MacKay said.
Ken Kronson, owner and pharmacist at the MediMart Pharmacy in Winnipeg, said drug companies began cutting off supplies about a year ago.
"I thought they were making enough money anyway that they wouldn't care about a little bit of leakage," said Kronson, who has been selling drugs to Americans since 1995. "They obviously do."
Still, Kronson, like several other Canadian pharmacists, said he "manages" to get Pfizer products.
"They drew a line in the sand," said Kronson, adding that other companies are following. "If I have to sell to only Canadians one day, I will do that. I'm not afraid of them. There's nothing wrong with what we're doing."
Despite the crackdown, Canadadrugs.com is also doing business as usual, said Robert Fraser, director of pharmacy for the Winnipeg company.
"They, like, holding everybody hostage," Fraser said. "They're holding Americans hostage with the prices they're charging in the United States. They're bordering on obscene. That's why a lot of Americans turn to Canada."
Meanwhile, Irving Diton is still angry that customs confiscated his order from Adv-Care Pharmacy in Markham, Canada. Much of the medicine was for his wife, Charlotte, 72, who has Parkinson's disease. The $531 supply would have cost $982 at a local pharmacy, he said.
In March, customs seized more than 100 of Adv-Care's shipments headed to customers, including the Ditons. Some were returned with a notice saying the drugs were available in the United States and not permitted for personal importation, said an Adv-Care official, who asked not to be named. "If it's available at triple the price, does that make it available to the customer?" he said.
Diton dismisses the fact he's breaking the law by importing the drugs.
"It's like a tongue-in-cheek kind of law ... It's not like passing a stop sign or passing through a red light," he said. "It's so common, and the law is so outdated, so one-sided. It's actually a law for the drug companies. It's not a law that makes any sense."
Diton reordered the medication, and eventually, Mastercard credited him for the first order. Now, the couple orders well before their supplies run out.
"I don't want to get stuck" waiting again, said Charlotte Diton. It's "not like we're ordering a luxurious outfit. This is something that we need. We want to know that once we place an order, we are going to receive it."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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