Blagojevich is looking into purchasing prescription drugs from Canada

Daily Egyptian Reporter
Daily Egyptian

The astronomical costs of prescription drugs have sent seniors ˘ and the city of Salem, Mass. ˘ flocking to our neighbors to the north. As prices continue to skyrocket, Gov. Rob Blagojevich is following suit.

Blagojevich is looking into purchasing prescription drugs from Canada as a more cost-effective way to provide state employees, and possibly senior citizens, with healthcare.

But he is finding that many obstacles stand in his way. The biggest is the recent rejection of his request by the Food and Drug Administration.

It came just hours before his plane landed in Washington on Wednesday, where he was to lobby for permission to buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada.

Another blow came when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley publicly stated his disapproval for the plan. He said he would not look to Canada as a more cost-efficient way to provide health care for city workers because of his fear that they are not as safe. But Blagojevich has made some progress.

He recently contacted every governor in the country seeking support for his plan. He found it in Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, who said they too would order feasibility studies as a step toward the consideration of importing Canadian drugs into those states.

Abby Ottenhoff, spokeswoman for Blagojevich, said "We have senior citizens living on a fixed income and a state with a $5 billion deficit, and we're paying prescription drug prices that are rising by 15 to 20 percent a year for the same exact medication that is available for half the price in other countries."

According to a report on drug prices at Walgreens in the United States and MediMart Pharmacy in Canada, which was done by the Chicago Tribune July 16, 100 pills of Zoloft, which treats depression, costs about $236 in the United States. The same amount of that drug is sold for $106 in Canada. Synthroid, a prescription that treats thyroid disease sells at a savings of 57 percent in Canada. A hundred 30-milligram pills of Actos, which is taken by patients who suffer from diabetes, costs a whopping $516 in the United States, while the same amount only costs $268.52 in Canada.

This study is just one of many that make the massive savings of buying prescriptions from Canada obvious.

In July, the mayor of Springfield, Mass., Michael Albano, began the program. Nick J. Breault, spokesman for Albano, said it could save the city as much as $9 million a year.

Despite Blagojevich's rejection by the FDA, he is bringing national attention to Illinois and to the issue of the United States≠ inability to control drug costs.

If the FDA would allow Illinois to buy drugs from Canada, it could give the rest of the country leverage to tell the American pharmaceutical companies they should lower prices or they will lose much of the American market to Canada. This in itself might be enough of an incentive for drug companies to lower their prices, something that desperately needs to be done.

Blagojevich has dealt with a massive deficit by cutting funding for education, health care and other desperately needed programs. With this, we feel the governor must also look at ways to become more efficient with government spending. Buying drugs from Canada could be one of those ways.

The FDA claims to have evidence that prescription drugs from Canada could be harmful. If this is the case, projects like the one Blagojevich is proposing should be halted. However, we have yet to see hard evidence that this is the case. It doesn't hurt to look further explore the possibility.

In the meantime, more government officials need to challenge the U.S. pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices so all Americans can have the ability to purchase the drugs their doctors prescribe.

The quickest way to do that would be to lesson the amount of money ˘ $2.6 billion ˘ that drug companies spend promoting their products.

At any rate, we applaud the governor for not just making cuts to the budgets but looking into ways to do more with less.

Copyright 2009 - Daily Egyptian