The Boston Globe
November 6, 2003
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C1
LENGTH: 1053 words
HEADLINE: DEMOCRATS EMBRACING DRUG IMPORTS PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS HIT FIRMS AMID RISING INTEREST IN THE ISSUE
BYLINE: By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff
BODY:
Tapping into a deep well of anger and anxiety over prescription drug prices, especially among seniors, candidates in the Democratic presidential primary are taking shots at big drug companies and extolling the idea of importing lower-cost medicine from Canada.
Questions about prescription drug prices invariably come up as the candidates stump at senior centers in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The issue is on the minds of voters in Michigan, a border state with early caucuses where seniors travel to Canada by the busload to buy drugs. In Iowa, where two-thirds of the caucusgoers are expected to be over 50, Democrats are contrasting US and Canadian drug prices in an attempt to vanquish Republicans and industry in the debate over a Medicare prescription benefit.
"The focus is very specific to prescription drug costs, which are known to be a hot-button issue with seniors," said David Redlawsk, assistant professor of political science at the University of Iowa. "The fact that they can beat up on big drug companies at the same time is seen as an added benefit."
With the exception of retired Army General Wesley K. Clark, who has not taken a position, each of the Democrats in the primary is on record that Americans should have access to Canadian drugs. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts have been especially forceful in their statements. A retired worker from a tractor factory in Iowa, David Campbell, said that of the five candidates he had heard speaking, Kerry was the most "visibly angry" when it came to pressuring drug companies over the high cost of prescriptions, "like an old Baptist minister."
Dean, meanwhile, summarily dismisses warnings by the Food and Drug Administration about the safety of Canadian prescriptions as drug industry propaganda aimed at protecting prescription prices in the United States.
"The FDA is clearly the handmaiden of the pharmaceutical industry on this issue," Dean said in a telephone interview. "The Canadians don't have any different drug handling than we do." Opening the border to the flow of medicine from Canada would force the US pharmaceutical industry to lower prices, said Dean.
"Their business practices are anticompetitive," he said. "All I ask is that drug companies compete on price, just like everyone else."
The issue of Canadian drug purchases went largely unnoticed for several years except by seniors in border states. The potent issue has burst onto the political scene, particularly after Mayor Michael Albano of Springfield launched the nation's first government program to import Canadian drugs in July, predicting annual savings of $4 million to $9 million for city employees.
Since Albano's move, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has said he is laying the groundwork for a similar program. Illinois recently completed a study - which generated much buzz in other state capitols - that said tapping Canadian imports could save the state $91 million a year. Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, and South Dakota also are considering the idea.
"Americans now know - it's no longer a secret," said US Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, one of the nine Democrats in the primary race. "People are hot about this, and they are demanding a response."
Importing prescription drugs from outside the United States is illegal, and the FDA has repeatedly warned that drugs from Canada, although widely viewed as safe, could provide a channel for counterfeit or improperly stored drugs to reach American consumers. Despite the warnings, polls have shown overwhelming support for the shipments, and a number of moderate and conservative Republicans in Congress count themselves as strong advocates.
A Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire found 83 percent of those surveyed favored the practice, compared to just 7 percent opposed. The overwhelming numbers show up in other polls, said Dick Bennett, a pollster in Manchester, N.H.: "It cuts across the board in terms of party or ideology."
Much of the anger can be traced to disparities in global drug prices. Canada, Europe and other westernized nations have national healthcare systems that allow their governments to impose strict price controls on manufacturers. In the United States, the government has no such system, and drug firms - with many brand monopolies - are able to charge a premium until patents expire and generic competition is introduced. The differences result in prices that are 20 to 80 percent higher in the United States.
The drug industry argues the higher American prices are required to support the expensive research and development of new types of medicine. The Democrats running for president, however, are questioning this dependence on US patients to fund research, because citizens in all Western countries - not just Americans - enjoy the health benefits.
"It makes no sense to pay the highest prices in the world, and other industrialized countries get the benefit of all that largesse from American taxpayers, and they pay far less for the drugs," said Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri.
"There's a lot of people already importing drugs on the Internet, using their credit card," he added. "I run into people at almost every meeting I'm at that are doing that, and we ought to make it safe and lawful to do it."
The other candidates on record as supporting Canadian prescriptions are former ambassador Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Senators John Edwards of North Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York. Senior advocates in Iowa and Michigan said prescription prices are causing a great deal of anxiety for seniors that frequently bubbles up around kitchen tables, at senior centers where they receive counseling, and in public forums with candidates.
"This is happening all around us. It's the whole Midwest, the states adjoining Canada," said Mark Swanson, director of the Howell Senior Center in Livingston County, Mich. "When Social Security goes up 2 percent, and the cost of drugs goes up 30 to 40 percent, it comes down to: 'Do I take my medication and stay alive, or do I eat and stay alive.' "
Christopher Rowland can be reached at [email protected].
LOAD-DATE: November 6, 2003