According to the Wall Street Journal, "White House aide David Axelrod said President Barack Obama was 'committed' to allowing the re-importation of pharmaceutical drugs into the U.S. and would push ahead with efforts to open the market," despite the fact that similar provisions were excluded from the healthcare reform bill in the Senate.
"It's important to note that this is re-importation," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "In other words, the drugs start in the U.S. and are sold to Canada and other countries under foreign price controls. No one outside the industry knows the real reasons that re-imported drugs are cheaper: the reason is that pharmaceutical companies are legally required to slash the price, so Canadians, Germans, etc. get them on the cheap. Then Canada sells them back to us cheaper than the pharmaceutical company's price. It's a non-sustainable process."
"Re-importation sounds like a good idea at first, but actually it's very problematic," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "You don't know if the drugs you're buying actually come from Canada or if they're the same ones you sold to them. They could be coming from anywhere, and it would be practically impossible to ensure that they are safe. The price controls would also undercut the American drug market and the pharmaceutical companies' ability to fund research and drug innovation.
"People say, 'Why should they be able to sell a pill for nine dollars when it only costs 80 cents to make?' Well, from the second pill to the billionth pill they cost 80 cents, but the first pill costs billions of dollars in research and development. Re-importation will end up being very costly when the pharmaceutical industry's ability to make a reasonable profit causes them to outsource their research to Asia, which has already begun. Further, our own new drug pipeline has begun to wither as uncertainty makes companies reluctant to spend the billions to get U.S. approval for new drugs."
