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Chellie Pingree: Canada Cozies Up to Big Pharma
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| Parent(s) |
Candidate
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| Contributor | Guy |
| Last Edited | Guy Jul 06, 2005 11:48am |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Monday, July 4, 2005 01:15:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The shouldn’t-be-shocking-but-still-is news out of Canada last week that their health minister will attempt to ban the shipment of drugs to the US has the hands of the pharmaceutical manufacturers written all over it. I had an opportunity to discuss this bad news on TV a couple of nights ago on CNN's Lou Dobb's Tonight show. Currently the business of “re-importing” drugs from Canada back to the US is a $700 million dollar leak in Pharma’s stranglehold over total control of drug sales in the US and is getting in the way of their maintaining their status as the most profitable industry in the world.
It is just this simple--Canada, like virtually every other country in the world, negotiates with the pharmaceutical manufacturers to set a reasonable selling price for medications in their country. (To be perfectly clear--this is not “socialized medicine,” not a “subsidy”...this is just a government seeking the best price for its citizens.) And, if your home is in a border state like mine (Maine), the contrast is striking. I have “ridden the bus” to Canada more than once with a group of seniors. For some of them the ride is six to eight hours long, but filling their prescriptions at a Canadian pharmacy can be well worth the trip--and, for a growing number of Americans, the only way to get what they need. The last time I shared the bus with this hearty band, there were 25 seniors buying a three- to six-month supply of the drugs we will all need someday--for heart problems, blood pressure, arthritis. After making their purchases in a cross-border drug store that looked just like one back in Maine, they sat down over coffee to compare their receipts to the ones they had brought from home. Their collective savings were $18,000. I once sat next to a woman taking Tomaxifin, a wonderful drug that has made a life-saving difference for many women with breast cancer. She paid $110 for her 30 day supply at her local pharmacy in Maine, yet in Saint Stevens, New |
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