////Drug Importation Picks Up Support

[Guest guest]

well, well, well, what do you know, the voices of the " little guy " are starting

to shout .....!!!!

 

 

Drug Importation Picks Up Support

AARP, Two Senators Back Issue as McClellan Makes Concessions

 

By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, March 12, 2004; Page A02

 

Proposals to allow Americans to buy low-cost prescription drugs from foreign

countries such as Canada picked up two new Senate supporters yesterday and

received a major boost from the seniors' group AARP.

 

In full-page newspaper advertisements and a letter to pharmaceuticals makers,

the lobbying group credited with helping pass last year's Medicare prescription

drug benefit weighed in forcefully in favor of drug importation, a proposal the

group had only tepidly accepted in the past. On Capitol Hill, Sens. Trent Lott

(R-Miss.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said they now support importation.

 

The shifting positions came as Mark McClellan, President Bush's choice to run

the federal Medicare program, tried to revive his stalled nomination with an

apology to Congress and promises to work with lawmakers to break the logjam over

the contentious issue.

 

Bowing to pressure, McClellan, commissioner of the Food and Drug

Administration, appeared for more than two hours before the Senate Commerce,

Science and Transportation Committee, whose members had threatened to hold up

his nomination if he did not.

 

Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) set the tone with a sarcastic

introduction. Citing McClellan's " impressive credentials, " he called it " all the

more puzzling that he has refused to testify before this committee on drug

importation despite the fact we have invited him repeatedly to do so. "

 

If McClellan is confirmed as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Services, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) wondered, would Congress have similar

problems getting his attention?

 

" I am very sorry about the perception that we haven't been responsive, "

McClellan replied. " When I am asked to testify . . . I will be there. "

 

Though McClellan said he was " absolutely willing to work with Congress " on the

issue, his comments did little to calm the growing political storm over soaring

drug prices and the FDA's longstanding opposition to drug importation.

 

" I cannot explain to my mother any longer why she should pay twice or

two-thirds as much more than what they pay in Canada or Mexico, " Lott said.

" When the next vote comes, I'm switching my vote on the importation of drugs. "

 

Like Lott, AARP chief William D. Novelli expressed growing frustration with

drug makers and said his group's tougher stance was partly in response to moves

by pharmaceutical companies to cut off supplies to Canada. " We think the

industry has got to see the writing on the wall and begin to help " create a safe

procedure for shipping drugs from Canada to the United States.

 

Cornyn said in an interview that he has become convinced that drug imports can

be regulated much as imported food is.

 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) also switched his position this year, and

last week, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) voted for a nonbinding budget amendment

endorsing legal importation. The House overwhelmingly approved the legislation

last year.

 

McClellan told lawmakers that a task force on drug importation is " working

hard right now, " though task force members have not been named. Senators pressed

McClellan on how much money and staff are needed to devise a safer importation

system, but McClellan had no specific response.

 

" We are not talking about an academic situation, " McCain said. " We are talking

about seniors who are going to bed tonight making a decision whether to pay for

a prescription drug or to eat. You almost have an obligation to these seniors to

come up with a proposal of your own so that we can make their prescription drugs

more affordable. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51401-2004Mar11?language=printer