By: Michelle Plasari, President, RetireSafe
October 31, 2007

Recent events featuring dangerous Chinese imports of toxic lead-painted toys, tainted dog food, contaminated toothpaste, and other substandard consumer products have outraged consumers and led to Congressional hearings on how to protect the public. The ghastly images of sick children and dying pets illustrate the frightening future we face if some in Congress get their way and hundreds of millions of foreign medications begin pouring into our nation.

The distorted vision of mass prescription drug importation has become so attractive to politicians at every level that they are lining up to waive their legislative wands to make it happen. Once again, the House of Representatives seems poised to open our borders to allow our closed drug system to be breached. With cheap drugs as their battle cry, these elected panderers loudly vie to be the champions of importing huge amounts of foreign medications into the United States.

That’s business as usual, politicians have always tested the wind to see what’s popular (cheap drugs) – and then champion that cause. This time, they have failed to make the connection with recent events, and they have forgotten to answer some important concerns. What about the growing epidemic of counterfeit medications plaguing the rest of the world? What about the drug safety we expect and depend on? What will these same elected officials say when people die because of their policies? Who will stand up and take responsibility for the damage?

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) have warned that if importation is allowed, we will be opening our borders to counterfeit drugs, cheap foreign copies of FDA-approved drugs, expired and/or contaminated drugs, and drugs stored or transported under unsafe conditions. The FDA has said repeatedly that it can not guarantee the safety of medicines coming into the U.S. from foreign countries.

The numbers are staggering. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that up to “ten percent of medicines available globally are counterfeits, posing a serious health hazard.” In one FDA and U.S. Customs Department investigation targeting imported prescription drugs entering our country, some 88 percent of the medicines discovered were found to be unapproved or otherwise illegal. The Center for Medicines in the Public Interest (based in the U.S.) projects counterfeit drug sales to reach $75 billion around the globe by 2010, a five-year increase of more than 90 percent. The WHO today estimates that “25 percent to 50 percent of the drugs consumed in developing countries are counterfeit.”

The House importation legislation would allow drugs from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Most of these countries are the same European Union (EU) countries now fighting a growing problem of counterfeit drugs resulting from their “parallel trade” policy.

A report by the Council of Europe found that, “The existence of a significant level of parallel trade in the EU, in the absence of adequate controls of repackaging and relabeling, provides an opportunity for the inadvertent entry of counterfeit drugs into the market.…Furthermore, parallel trade means that any counterfeit drug within the legitimate distribution chain in one Member State can easily contaminate other Member States.” In that regard, EU customs seizures published in November 2006 recorded more than 560,598 packets of fake medicine seized last year. The large majority came from India, Egypt, and China. What a great place for Americans to get their medicines!

Deaths tolls are rising from fake medications around the world. Estimates of fatalities caused by counterfeit drugs run as high as 200,000 worldwide, according to the WHO. These deaths include people in British Columbia and the U.S. who purchased drugs at supposed Canadian pharmacies. Few medicines are produced in Canada, and studies have shown that many of the drugs alleged to be from Canada were actually imported to Canada from countries like Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, China, South Africa, and even Saudi Arabia and Iran. That’s why the FDA has repeatedly opposed drug importation from Canada. As scary as it may be -- Canada may be the safest country listed in the House importation bill. Happy Halloween! This bill could be quite a fatal trick.

For those reasons, this dangerous drug importation measure must be defeated. Hopefully the adults in Congress will defeat it, or the President will veto it before all Americans, and especially seniors and children, are put at risk.