STATES LOOK TO REDUCE DRUG PRICES - Importing Canadian Drugs Reduce Costs 60%

(12/12/2003)

While Washington declined to address soaring prescription drug and health insurance costs in the new Medicare bill, about a dozen states, including West Virginia, are looking at ways to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and make them widely available to Americans. There are huge political and business walls to the project. The plan would use retail drug stores. Foreign drugs, even those made by American companies, cost much less in Canada than prescription medication sold to American consumers. The cost could be reduced up to 60% of what Americans are now paying. Representatives from the states met with five Canadian drug companies at an Atlanta hotel yesterday to hear their pitch on how to sell the drugs safely and under the law. Some state and federal agencies have either blocked or opposed Americans obtaining medication from other countries. The City of Boston and New Hampshire have announced their intention to purchase drugs from Canada. Tom Susman, West Virginia's acting administration secretary, says if the cost is cheaper and it would allow citizens to purchase their medications, he thinks it's legitimate. The new Medicare prescription drug plan, the most costly medical program ever issued by the US government, would pay the current high drug prices at taxpayer expense.

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