FDA Cracking Down On Drug Imports

When you think of drug smugglers, what comes to mind? South Americans who swallow condoms filled with cocaine sneaking past customs agents? Sleazy-looking guys with gold chains and fast cars hiding heroin?
What about a granny in tennis shoes and a tee shirt? Many otherwise respectable senior citizens are smuggling prescription medicines into the country in their plastic shopping bags.
If they’re not traveling to border towns in Mexico or Canada, millions are ordering their blood pressure pills or heartburn medicine on the Internet. Prescription drugs are much cheaper abroad, and the difference in price is tempting these law-abiding citizens into criminal activity.
Breast cancer treatment can be expensive. After surgery or radiation, a woman is often prescribed the anti-estrogen medication tamoxifen (Nolvadex). In the U.S., a month’s supply can easily run over $100. You can get the same amount of this life-saving medication in Canada for about $20. Even with shipping and handling, a woman could save 70 percent.
Most senior citizens buying Canadian medicine don’t even realize they’re breaking the law. Full-page ads in newspapers encourage people to use the Web to import medicines for their own use. But the FDA is about to crack down.
The Bush administration has decided to side with the pharmaceutical industry and enforce laws against drug importation. Up until now, the FDA has been reluctant to go after elderly people buying drugs across the border. For one thing, Congressmen have taken constituents on bus trips to do this very thing. High prescription drug prices have been a hot-button campaign issue for years.
But in a recent about-face, the agency announced that it will be taking legal action against anyone who helps aging scoff-laws. It warned that those who aid and abet older people who buy their medicines in Canada or other foreign countries may face civil or criminal charges.
Whether the FDA would actually throw grandma in jail is doubtful, but the feds will probably make it much more difficult for people to save money on prescription medicines by getting them across the border.
The law governing such purchases can seem Orwellian. If a medication has been approved by the FDA and is sold in U.S. pharmacies, it cannot legally be imported (except by the original manufacturer). This means that you cannot buy Nexium, Lipitor or Celebrex in Canada just to save money.
If, on the other hand, you have a serious or life-threatening condition and there is a drug available abroad (but NOT in the U.S.), you can legally bring in such a medication for your own use. For example, someone suffering from a serious digestive tract condition called gastroparesis could import domperidone from Canada because it has never been approved or sold in the U.S. To be legal, though, you would need a doctor’s prescription.
The impending FDA crackdown has garnered praise from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s trade group. But it is creating confusion for consumers who thought they were allowed to bring in medicine for their own use. Stiffer customs inspections may make it much harder for some Americans to afford their medicine.