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Thursday, June 3, 2004
Snowe, Collins split on drug imports
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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WASHINGTON — Maine's Republican senators have split over legislation to allow the importation of prescription drugs from other countries. Sen. Susan Collins co-sponsored a bill Wednesday with a colleague who described the rival version from Sen. Olympia Snowe as playing Russian roulette with medication. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Health Committee chairman, criticized safety precautions in the Snowe bill and called it unconstitutional as he introduced his own version with Collins. Meanwhile, Snowe released a May 19 letter from David Kessler, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, that endorses her bill. The bills aren't necessarily exclusive. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who recently changed his mind to support importation, sponsored both. Disputes between the various strategies could prevent passage of any. Snowe's bill features bipartisan support from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Gregg said he drafted his version after discussions with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a doctor. Collins suggested that widespread interest in the multiple bills could spur action. "My hope is that the number of bills and the broad range of supporters will lend momentum to the cause so that we can get this very important concept signed into law this year," Collins said. "I believe that Judd Gregg's bill is better drafted and has a better chance of actually becoming law." Gregg said his goal is for the Health Committee to vote on the legislation before the end of July. Importation is important in Maine, because patients already stream to Canada, where the government caps prices, in search of cheaper drugs. Residents are allowed to bring back a personal supply for six months. But federal regulators - under both the Bush and Clinton administrations - have thwarted previous attempts to allow broader importation because of safety concerns. Spot checks of drugs mailed into the country have found problems such as prohibited or counterfeit drugs in four of five packages. As a result, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, proposed that the Food and Drug Administration certify overseas exporters and then post a list of approved manufacturers to which customers could send prescriptions. The Snowe version would regulate domestic wholesalers, which import FDA-approved drugs from FDA-inspected manufacturing plants before shipping medication to local pharmacies. The Collins version would allow wholesalers and local pharmacies to import drugs approved by the FDA and manufactured at FDA-approved facilities. But limits include a prohibition on biological products, such as insulin, allowed under the Snowe bill. The Collins bill would give the FDA a year to set up importation from Canada and three years to open the door to 15 European Union countries. The Snowe bill has a shorter timetable - 90 days from Canada and one year from Europe and other countries. Collins said a provision to establish regulations for Internet pharmacies is an advantage of the version she backs, though she thinks "both bills would get us to the goal that I support." But Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., suggested the Snowe bill would allow local pharmacists to mix foreign drugs with domestic products so customers would never know what they were getting and re-calls on bad drugs would be impossible to trace. Gregg said the bill from Snowe and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., would endanger American customers. "What we want is a bill where you don't have to play Russian roulette with prescriptions, or in this case, Luxembourg roulette with the Dorgan bill, where you don't know if the pill you buy is going to cure you or kill you," Gregg said. Gregg also argued that the Snowe bill is unconstitutional because it aims to prevent manufacturers from selling fewer drugs to countries that then ship the drugs back to the United States. For her part, Snowe released a letter from Kessler supporting her bill. Kessler said in the letter released at a Gregg hearing on her bill that it "provides a sound framework for assuring that imported drugs are safe and effective." Staff Writer Bart Jansen can be contacted at 202-488-1119 or at:
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