Albany Times-Union
April 14, 2009
By Peter J. Pitts
State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. believes that "drugs from Canada" will lower costs and improve access ("Bill would cut drug costs, April 8.) The facts speak otherwise.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that permitting foreign drug importation would lower U.S. drug spending by less than 1 percent over 10 years.
Senator Diaz also fails to mention the serious safety concerns of drug importation. The FDA has said time and again that it is unable to guarantee that drugs purchased in Canada, Great Britain and France actually originate in those countries. What can be guaranteed is that many do not.
Because of free trade among the European Union's 27 member states, drugs bought from a British pharmacy easily could have originated in Latvia, Malta, Cyprus or elsewhere in the European Union. In Britain alone, such medicines accounted for nearly 20 percent of all prescription drugs sold last year.
Peter J. Pitts
President
Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
New York City
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