Seniors
group files lawsuit over Canada imports
05/19/2004
Minnesota Public Radio
A group
of Minnesota seniors has filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District
Court against nine pharmaceutical companies. The plaintiffs
allege that those drug companies have conspired to prevent
U.S. consumers from buying prescription drugs from Canada,
creating high drug prices in the United States. This is the
latest action taken in Minnesota to allow for the reimportation
of Canadian medicine. They argue that Americans unfairly pay
the highest drug prices in the world.
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| Marvin Miller says drug companies have cut off drug
supplies to certain Canadian pharmacies to keep cross-border
sales from eating into profit margins. (MPR Photo/Tom
Scheck) |
St. Paul, Minn. — The suit claims
the drug companies are conspiring to limit drug sales to any
Canadian pharmacy that sells prescription drugs to Americans.
Chicago-based attorney Marvin Miller filed the suit with the
help of the Minnesota Senior Federation. He's asking the court
to make it a class action suit, so it would include all affected
consumers, not just the three plaintiffs named in the filing.
He says consumers would benefit if drug companies allowed
cross-border sales because of increased competition between
American and Canadian pharmacies. Miller says he's seeking
attorneys' fees, unspecified damages and a stop to the companies'
anti-import efforts.
"We believe that they did meet,
that they did confer and that they implemented a policy or
policies to threaten to cut off the supply of pharmaceuticals
to Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies when those prescription
drugs would come back into the United States," Miller
says.
Miller says drug companies have cut
off drug supplies to certain Canadian pharmacies to keep cross-border
sales from eating into profit margins. Drugs in Canada are
less expensive because of government price controls. Many
Canadian Internet pharmacies say the boycott has caused their
supplies to dwindle in recent months. Some say they could
run out of certain popular drugs in the next six months.
Officials with Pfizer, the world's
largest drug company, say they can't comment on the lawsuit
because they haven't seen it. But Pfizer spokesman Bryant
Haskins defends the company's limits on Canadian sales. He
read a statement saying the company's tactics are legal and
are meant to protect U.S. consumers from importing unsafe
or counterfeit medicine.
"We're confident
our distribution practices not only comply with U.S. law and
FDA regulations, but they're also in the best interests of
patient safety. The simple truth is that the importation of
pharmaceutical products into the U.S. from Canada is not only
illegal, but it's also dangerous.," Haskins said. Click
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