Penobscots, seniors outline plan to import drugs from Canada

By JOSIE HUANG, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

The Penobscot Indian Nation and Maine Council of Senior Citizens want to set up a system to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and sell them to pharmacies in Maine.

Under a plan announced Monday, the tribe would buy supplies from a wholesaler in Canada - where drug costs are much lower because of government price controls and a favorable exchange rate - and then distribute them from a warehouse on Indian Island, the Penobscot Indian reservation.

"This is a win-win type of thing," John Carr, president of the senior citizens' group, said of the alliance. "It gives the Penobscots the possibility of a new business . . . and it gives the Maine Council of Senior Citizens the ability to buy prescription drugs at much cheaper rates."

Monday's announcement comes at a time when federal regulators are trying to crack down on an increasingly popular practice they say is illegal and exposes consumers to counterfeit and substandard drugs.

Those proposing the importation venture in Maine say safety is a top priority, and have asked Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for a one-year, $200,000 grant to conduct a study on how secure it is to import drugs from Canada and other countries.

"We have to make sure this is an OK deal and Tommy Thompson has to give us his blessing," Penobscot Chief Barry Dana said.

Congress has twice passed drug-importation bills that said the HHS secretary would have to certify that the drugs are safe, but neither Donna Shalala, who served under former President Clinton, nor Thompson have agreed to do so.

The coalition in Maine, however, remains hopeful. All four members of Maine's congressional delegation have written letters to Thompson supporting the grant request. And the Maine AFL-CIO, which is affiliated with the Maine Council of Senior Citizens, has pledged to open up markets to the coalition through its 50,000 members and local unions, said President Ed Gorham.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to press a prescription-drug benefit in Medicare as a better solution than importation - but Congress has yet to reconcile differences in rival drug plans.

"We are wasting so much time coming up with bizarre schemes that we've taken our eye off of the ball," said Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Some of the world's largest drug companies are trying to discourage Canadian sales to Americans by threatening to cut supplies to a Canadian pharmacy if it orders more than is needed for its domestic market.

"The fact is that we don't want somebody else's failed price-control-fixing schemes being brought into this country," Trewhitt said.

Price controls, Trewhitt said, dampen the innovative research that leads to life-saving drugs. But as drug costs continue to rise, more people are ignoring warnings and ordering Canadian drugs over the Internet or taking bus trips north.

Meanwhile, local and state governments around the country are considering Canadian drug purchases for employees, hoping to save millions of dollars.

The city of Springfield, Mass., has already enrolled more than 800 city employees in a voluntary program that uses supplies from Canada.

A spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci said Monday that the governor is reviewing the proposal from the Penobscot Nation and the Maine Council of Senior Citizens but that he favors importing drugs from Canada as a last resort.

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