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US-HEALTH-DRUGS-CANADA
Trump unveils plan to import cheaper foreign drugs
WASHINGTON, Dec 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Donald Trump’s administration
unveiled a plan Wednesday to allow for importation of lower-price
prescriptions from Canada and other countries, a cost-saving goal championed
by both the US president and Democratic rivals on the 2020 campaign trail.
“No president in history has ever had an FDA willing to open the door to
safe importation of drugs from Canada,” Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a
conference call with the press.
The Department of Health and Human Services published proposed rules and
guidance Wednesday outlining two pathways to formalize the president’s plan,
first laid out at the end of July.
Under a first pathway, US states would be allowed to propose importation
programs for drugs already authorized in Canada, subject to approval by the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). States bordering the United States’
northern neighbor, including Vermont and New Hampshire, are already onboard
with the project.
However, the program would not include biological drugs — ones made from
large or live molecules — meaning medications such as insulin, whose price
is often derided as sky-high in the US, would be excluded.
The measure is subject to a 75-day comment period, after which it will
need to be finalized before entering into effect.
A second pathway would allow US pharmaceutical companies to import drugs
they market abroad, circumventing middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers
that prevent manufacturers from lowering the price patients pay at the
counter.
Foreign but identical versions of a company’s drugs, including biological
drugs, could therefore be sold under a separate code at a reduced cost.
The measure, Azar said, would allow drug companies to “bring that same
product in the United States to basically compete against your own product,
but at a lower list price.”
BSS/AFP/FI/ 2005 hrs