Why have proposals to import medications from Canada attracted so much public and political attention?
And if Congress approves the importing of Canadian drugs, will that allow in enough to make medications affordable for all Americans? Or will there be so many regulatory strings that it doesn’t help much? These questions could be posed to PhRMA, individual drug makers, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Mark McClellan, prescription drug reform advocates (including proponents of importing drugs from Canada) and drug policy experts. Here are some facts: Drug makers’ U.S. prices for brand-name drugs are highest in the world, by far. Drug spending’s share of U.S. personal income rose by 50 percent in the four years from 1998 to 2002 alone. Since 1994, drug spending itself has been doubling every five years. (As a benchmark, it’s greater than one-half of defense spending this year.) At the same time, some 75 million Americans-one-quarter of us-have no insurance coverage for prescription drugs. Drug makers claim that cutting their high U.S. prices would damage innovative resear
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