AGs Call For Prescription Drug Importation

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AGs

Call For Prescription Drug Importation

May 6, 2004

BOSTON (AP) -- Attorneys general from 18 states, including Connecticut, sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary

Tommy on Wednesday, asking him to allow states to import low-cost

prescription drugs from Canada.

The letter came a day after said

that legalizing prescription drug imports was inevitable and that he would

advise President Bush not to stand in the way of legislation making its way

through Congress that would clear the way for imports.

In the letter, the attorneys general urge

to " act immediately to help provide our citizens with

affordable prescription drugs while ensuring drug safety. "

The letter, which was signed by

Massachusetts Attorney General Reilly, asks to allow state to

be appointed as licensed wholesalers or allow them to contract with licensed

wholesalers to import prescription drugs from Canada.

All drugs would be manufactured in

facilities approved by the Food and Drug Administration and shipped to the United States from Canada in their original packaging. Special tracking

technologies would be used to guard against counterfeit drugs, the letter

said.

" We believe that, with the assistance

of the Food and Drug Administration, the undersigned states can work with the

Canadian authorities to develop a process for the safe importation of

prescription drugs, " the attorneys general wrote.

On Tuesday, said drug imports would

help American consumers, but warned the move would be expensive because

regulators, to ensure safety, would have to increase inspections of foreign

pharmaceutical plants and packaging of prescription drugs entering this

country.

Several bills are pending in Congress to

permit drug imports from Canada and elsewhere.

Officials in Springfield estimate that the city has saved $2 million in the nine

months since it started buying prescription drugs from Canada for city employees and retirees.

Besides Reilly, attorney generals from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, land, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New

York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode

Island, Vermont and Wisconsin also signed the letter.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in a

recent AP poll said the government should make it easier to buy cheaper drugs

from Canada or other countries.

Copyright 2004 The

Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Deanna