Seniors ink deal to buy Canadian drugs

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Minnesota seniors group strikes Canadian drug deal
Warren Wolfe
Star Tribune

Published Jan. 22, 2003

After years of unsuccessfully lobbying for government price controls on 
prescription drugs, the Minnesota Senior Federation announced Tuesday 
that it has negotiated an agreement under which any member can get drugs 
mailed from Canada at about half the U.S. retail price.

"This is not the best solution to the outrageous price of drugs," said 
Kate Stahl, 83, former president of the federation's metro region who 
helped negotiate the contract. "But it's the best we can do until our 
government leaders get the guts to stand up to the drug companies."

Seniors' organizations in Wisconsin and Indiana joined the federation in 
negotiating the agreement with CanadaRx, a six-year-old Toronto firm 
that mails drugs to U.S. residents. Similar groups from other states are 
in talks to join, officials said.

Under the program, anyone can join the advocacy group and ask his or her 
physician to mail or fax prescriptions for any of about 1,800 drugs to 
CanadaRx. On average, prices are about 45 percent cheaper than in the 
United States, federation officials said.

Because it takes two or three weeks to get the prescriptions, officials 
said most users will be people who regularly take drugs to treat heart 
disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis or other chronic 
conditions.

"This is really a pretty big deal for Minnesotans, especially older 
Minnesotans," said Jim Varpness, executive director of the Minnesota 
Board on Aging at the state Department of Human Services.

"The high cost of prescription drugs has been a major issue in the aging 
community for years," he said. "We're still hoping that Congress this 
year will offer a drug benefit with Medicare. But 80 percent of seniors 
take at least one prescription drug, and half of seniors have no drug 
insurance. So this is important."

'Legal gray area'

The program benefits anyone who uses it, but also lowers costs for 
insurers that offer a drug benefit to older people, federation officials 
said.

However, the program is operating in "a legal gray area," said Pete 
Wyckoff, executive director of the federation's metro region.

In 2000 Congress repealed a law prohibiting individuals from reimporting 
U.S.-made drugs, but the Clinton and Bush administrations refused to 
implement the program. Several years ago, the Food and Drug 
Administration sent letters to some Americans ordering drugs by mail, 
warning that their drugs might be confiscated.

"Since then, there's been no effort to stop the shipments of 
prescriptions, and the number of companies now offering prescriptions 
from Canada on the Internet or through the mail has greatly increased," 
Wyckoff said.

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http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/3605932.html

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