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December 22, 2004
The Bush administration's task force on drug re-importation yesterday released a 130-page gift to the pharmaceutical sector. The report predictably claims that efforts to provide seniors with cheaper medications might be risky and would "reduce research and development into new drugs" – PhRMA's code for cutting drug company profits. The bipartisan co-sponsors of the legislation which authorized the study disavowed the bogus report. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said he "never had much confidence that this study was going to be objective or its conclusions accurate." Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) called the report "a disappointment to those of us who have fought long and hard to develop safe and effective prescription drug importation legislation."
- The administration's report admits that imported drugs are safe. In "key finding" # 2, the report's authors admit, "some means of drug importation (e.g., traveling to Canada for certain brand name drugs available in both countries) may be relatively safe." Of course, this is exactly the notion the Bush administration has argued against. The report goes on to warn about the dangers of "bogus internet operations" and "rogue websites," which "provide customers with inferior products." But such methods of "personal importation" would not be necessary if the government simply agreed to import drugs in the first place.
- The report misrepresents the real cost savings for Americans. The report downplays the potential savings from legalized drug importation, saying most of the price difference would be captured by "intermediaries." But the CBO's analysis of a bill considered by Congress in 2003 found legalized importation would "reduce total prescription drug expenditures in the United States by about…$40 billion" over the next nine years."
- The administration only cares about protecting the profits of its pharmaceutical backers. The task force claims that, if re-importation were legal, the drug industry would have to reduce spending on research and development by $1.1 billion each year, resulting in "between four to eighteen fewer new drugs being introduced per decade." Here is what the report doesn't tell you: In 2002, Fortune 500 drug companies pocketed $35.9 billion in profits. Astoundingly, "the combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion)," according to Marcia Angell, author of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It.
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund. |
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund. |
