U.S. drug boycott threat called 'ridiculous'; fear-mongering, nothing more,

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U.S. drug boycott threat called 'ridiculous'

>

> By LEONARD ZEHR

> BIOTECHNOLOGY REPORTER

>

> UPDATED AT 1:45 PM EDT

> It's inconceivable that multinational drug companies will stop shipping

> pharmaceuticals to Canada as part of a political battle to break the back

> of Canadian Internet pharmacies that supply American consumers with drugs,

> industry sources say.

>

> " It's fear-mongering, nothing more, " said Laurie Gauthier, president of

> drug wholesaler Prairie Co-operative of Calgary, referring to drug

industry

> threats making the rounds in Washington yesterday where the U.S. Congress

> continues to debate allowing Americans to have access to lower-priced

drugs

> from other countries.

>

> " These [drug] companies have Canadian patents and if they stop selling or

> if significant shortages of patented products crop up, the Canadian

> government can step in and have a generic drug maker supply that product, "

> he said.

>

> " That's the last thing the drug industry wants to see happen. "

>

> Jeff Connell, a spokesman for the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical

> Association, agrees.

>

> " Any talk of a boycott is ridiculous, " he said, adding that in terms of a

> backlash, " it would rank up there with the drug industry decision to sue

> the South African government for importing [lower-priced] AIDS drugs. "

>

> While Ottawa does have the ability to issue so-called compulsory licences

> to generic companies under the Patent Act, Mr. Connell suggests that

" we're

> still a very long way from there. "

>

> Nevertheless, Health Canada has shown it isn't afraid to go up against the

> multinationals.

>

> Citing a national emergency two years ago, the agency asked generic drug

> giant Apotex Inc. of Toronto to make the anti-anthrax pill Cipro after

> patent holder Bayer Inc. initially claimed it couldn't satisfy Ottawa's

> needs to stockpile the drug after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

>

> The latest salvo in the Internet pharmacy war was fired by Pfizer Inc.,

> which last week informed 46 pharmacies in Canada that they must now buy

> their medicines from the company instead of wholesalers.

>

> The world's largest drug maker joined GlaxoSmithKline PLC, AstraZeneca PLC

> and Wyeth in trying to stem the flow of mail-order pharmaceuticals from

> Canada to the United States, where an estimated one million Americans are

> saving anywhere from one-third to one-half because of Canadian government

> price controls and a favourable exchange rate.

>

> While discounting the threat of a boycott, Mr. Connell said he is

concerned

> that the drug lobby has earmarked money to put pressure on the Canadian

> government to end price controls.

>

> " The issue is to lower prices in the U.S., not raise prices in Canada, " he

> said.

>

> " What reimportation does is threaten drug prices in the most lucrative

> market in the world, which is the U.S., and which also has the highest

drug

> prices in the world, " he added.

>

> In a statement yesterday, Glaxo's Canadian subsidiary said reimportation

> legislation is still a " work in progress in the U.S. Congress and has not

> been passed into law. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to speculate on

> outcomes or scenarios at this time. "

>

> Two weeks ago, in a rare defeat for the drug lobby, the U.S. House of

> Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would give bulk

> distributors as well as individual Americans access to buy lower-priced

> drugs abroad.

>

> It and a Senate bill, which requires the Secretary of Health to guarantee

> the safety of drug imports, are scheduled to go to committee after Labour

> Day as part of a compromise plan to add prescription drug coverage to

Medicare.

>

> " The genie is out of the bottle, " Mr. Gauthier said. " Americans have seen

> prescription drugs produced by U.S. companies shipped into Canada and then

> shipped back at lower prices. "

>

> According to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical sales tracking firm, annual

> mail-order drug sales from Canada have reached $650-million (U.S.).

>

> " Probably not even 1 per cent of Americans are buying medicines in Canada

> today but the danger for the drug industry is that if they don't stop it

> now, it could grow to 20 per cent in five years and then it would have an

> impact on the bottom line, " Mr. Gauthier said.

>

> Despite Big Pharma's crackdown, insiders say Canadian mail-order

pharmacies

> are alive and well.

>

> " Pharmacies that aren't on the blacklist have become sort of middlemen,

> supplying the mail-order companies as best they can for a fee, " the source

> said. " Glaxo products are now coming into Canada from New Zealand [and

> being sold to Americans] because they're even cheaper than the Canadian

> prices. "

>

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