Posted on 11/19/2007 7:31:33 PM PST by CHEE
John McCain on Saturday said he wants to again allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a way to bring health care costs under control. By Associated Press CANAAN, Vt. - Republican presidential contender John McCain on Saturday said he wants to again allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a way to bring health care costs under control.
(Excerpt) Read more at kfyi.com ...
Why? They are all made in the US anyway. When is the last time you heard of a breakthrough Canadian drug?
Its actually a shame. He just doesn’t have a clue.
Where does he think that Canada gets the drugs that he wants to (re)import?
Seems like finding a way to bring our own prices down would make more sense. Things like stop sending cheap medications to countries that don’t need the discount. And frivolous lawsuits that are the result of the 1 in 10,000,000 bad reaction to meds. The drug companies themselves could probably find a little fat to cut as well.
If McCain can get crap like the CFR through Congress, he could have gotten drug imports through by now also. I doubt if he cares any more about drug prices than he cares about energy prices. Personally, I think he is letting the drug companies know he wants some hefty campaign contributions.
As others have pointed out, it’s reimporting drugs so it doesn’t even make any sense.
Yes, McCain has a chance and a clue … NOT!
I agree.
His sheer ignorance of the health care system is astonishing. What happens to these guys when the go to DC? Are they required to take stupid pills?
I see nothing wrong with not sicking the Border Patrol on US citizens who bring back drugs that they buy in Canada. It is no worse than driving across state lines to buy cheap booze.
Every time I start liking him again, he has to go start currying favor with liberals and socialists. He had the best line of the campaign so far with the Woodstock quip, and I was actually thinking of him as a legitimate alternative. Foolish me.
If there were no other Republicans running in Iowa, McCain would not spend his money there. He wouldn’t waste his time investing to develop innovative ideas to gain voter interest.
Importing knock-off drugs does the same thing; there is less reason for the U.S. inventer of the drug to innovate since the people are buying someone else’s drug instead of choosing to buy an admittedly more expensive but more effective drug made here. If people are entranced by low price, how can an innovator hope to gain customers if that innovation carries a higher price?
The net result, a plateau in innovations, treatments and the death rate.
Lousy strategy on McCain’s part.
It’s about time for the open health market issue to make it into a platform! He’s pitching this one to the Arizona retiree audience.
Yessirree, folks, we all know how applying the same set of import policies to the microprocessor field has brought us a world of giant vacuum tube computers that get exponentially more expensive every year...
When you finally realize that this whole CORRUPT "Two-Party Cartel" is virtually the same ideologies, except the libs portion just voices more to the CORRUPT "Lame Stream Media" & they know that you on either side will vote them all back in so McLame acts & does the dirty deeds with commie libs & GW hangs out with his new adopted bro, Bubba. (Note - we are seem by the knowledgeable overseas as having the most corrupt gov of democratic nations because we just don't have one or two that can be ousted - we have a whole CONgress plus an unelected bureaucracy that is on the take for the most bucks & get reelected for more criminal behavior to continue.)
Drugs are less expensive in Canada because the Government subsidizes the cost through the 63% marginal tax rate they steal from the taxpayers. I am not sure but I for one do not want to pay this tax rate to get my drugs cheaper.
They may not all be made here but more than 90% of them are discovered here.
A low price with no right to sue whatever happens as a result of taking their drug.
And the standard high price for those who don’t want to give up their right to sue.
Yes, BUT, I’ll bet most of them were researched and patented($$$$$) here in the US.....
Drugs are cheaper in Canada because of price controls. U.S. pharmaceutical companies are required under a 1994 treaty to sell their drugs at drastically lower prices to countries with drug price controls. Any pharmaceutical company that fails to comply can be punished by having its patent protection taken away. Canada would gladly turn our intellectual property over to their generic manufacturers.
To comply with this treaty, drug companies slash prices for countries with price controls. This includes most countries in the developed world.
The purchasing countries in this deal are supposed to agree not to turn around and resell the drugs to Americans. That means all the state programs to reimport drugs are illegal, but the law is almost never enforced. By allowing the reimportation of drugs to the US, Canada is violating the terms of the treaty they signed.
Why, can’t we manufacture our own?
The drugs may have originated in the U. S. laboratories, but where (in which country) they (or a counterfeit knock-off) were manufactured before being shipped to Canada is quite another matter, and possibly a reason to be very much concerned about quality and purity.
correct. I believe its the drug research and discovery of new drugs that happens in the U.S.
then other countries use our findings to make the new drugs.
the reason that we pay such high prices here in the U.S. is to fund that research.
The reason we pay such high prices here in the U.S. is because we, as usual, are suckers. Canada and other "price control" countries are just as capable of funding drug research as are the U.S. taxpayers. Our Country makes agreements limiting free trade to help the profits of the pharmaceutical companies, who just happen to be some of the biggest donors to political campaigns.
It's always amusing to me that many self avowed "free traders" make all kinds of spurious arguments as to why there is not free trade in drugs. Their bottom line is usually that U.S. taxpayers must subsidize the research for new drugs by paying higher prices because the citizens of other countries refuse to do so by demanding lower prices than we must pay. In other words, you pay more because citizens of other countries don't want to.
Is there any incidence when the Federal Government has made an agreement with another country where the U.S. taxpayer has gotten a better deal than the citizens of the other country?
Which if true raises an excellent point. If we re-import Canadian drugs, we're essentially taking tax money from the Canadians to pay for our medication.
When will Freepers (and others) learn that trusting John McCain is a fool’s errand. He is and always was a loose cannon. He can turn on anyone at the drop of a hat. I would never trust him to be President. He is NOT a conservative, in many many ways. But he fools the naive.
Ah-ah. This wouldn’t mean that Canada subsidizes the drug price by 63%.
That's still not a valid reason to ban individuals from reimporting drugs. The buyers are adults and are fully aware of the risks involved in bringing drugs in from abroad. If they choose to take the risk, then it is their problem, not ours.
Clearly, many people who bring in drugs from Canada don't seem to think that the risk is too bad.
Drug companies spend tons of money for the purposes of marketing their products to buyers.
Because other areas, particularly Ireland and Puerto Rico, offer a much more favorable tax structure for manufacturers than the US does.
*shrug* Sure they do, just like any other for-profit business. Nothing wrong with that.
I never said there was anything wrong with that. People have to know what drugs to buy when they get to Canada after all. :)
Not really.
Actually, approximately 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients that go into the finished medicines sold in the US and Canada are produced in China or India. Even many of the OTC medicines that don't require a prescription are now made from ingredients made in China or India. The government's claim that the FDA ban on Canadian drugs is based on safety and drug quality issues is a lie. The real reason is that the FDA is protecting the profit margin of the big multinational pharmaceutical corporations who grossly overcharge American customers in order to compensate for their much slimmer profit margins in nations with socialized medicine and price controls on prescription drugs.
Our free market principles are fine if other nations observe those same principles. But with the situation that now exists American customers and the US Medicare/Medicaid programs are subsidizing the much lower cost of drugs sold in nations with socialized health care by way of exorbitant prices for pharmaceuticals sold here that come primarily from the same Asian sources as those sold in other countries.
Read post # 37. Most of the drugs sold in Canada and the US are made from products manufactured in the same laboratories in the same two countries, India and China. And they aren't counterfeit knock-offs, they are produced by the Asian labs FOR the major pharmaceutical companies who use them as ingredients in their name brand drugs. "Canadian" drugs are just as safe and effective as "American" drugs and often are made in the same labs, the only difference is price.
If we all weren’t so damned lazy,and would take those $50 per hour lettuce picking jobs,we’d have plenty of money to buy prescription drugs.
"Neither China nor India has the same regulatory standards as the U.S. and the European Union. Moreover, U.S. regulators are not able to carry out the same degree of oversight at foreign production facilities as they do at home. By law, FDA has to inspect domestic drug manufacturers at least every 2 years. However, of the 700 FDA-registered firms in China, the agency was able to carry out inspections at only 17 last year.
Even more alarmingly, firms that are not registered with the FDA, such as Chinese chemical companies that are making pharmaceutical ingredients illegally, never get inspected. According to the Times, China has an estimated 80,000 chemical companies, but our FDA does not know how many sell ingredients used in drugs consumed by Americans.
The pharmaceutical industry stresses that there is a duality to the regulatory system: government oversight on the one side and the company’s own quality control on the other. Yes, the pharmaceutical companies try to ensure that their supply chains are not compromised, but how successful can they be when even the local authorities in countries like China have no idea who is producing what components for the medicines that end up on the world market?
The U.S. has a state-of-the-art regulatory system, but even our system has gaps. When manufacturing shifts to developing countries, the high quality and safety standards that the American consumers have come to expect from products made in America can no longer be guaranteed, as we have seen time and time again. When production shifts abroad, the costs of production may decrease, but society’s costs rise, whether to pay for better regulation, or to deal with the consequences of consumer exposure to inferior, or dangerous products.
We have already seen recalls of toys, pet food, toothpaste, and many other goods, that may be dangerous to consumers. If more medicines are imported from China, the health and lives of our most vulnerable citizens may be put at risk.
There’s no question that production quality, inspections, and the level of regulation need to be dramatically enhanced. But the only way to guarantee the highest possible quality standard for our pharmaceuticals is to manufacture more of them in the U.S. under our close scrutiny, rather than trust others to take the matter of consumer safety to heart."
Are you scared yet?
Of course the AAM understandably wants foreign made drugs banned or severely limited in the US, so it's stressing the safety issue regarding imported drugs. But IMHO it's points regarding the safety and quality of Chinese and Indian produced drugs are quite valid in light of the recent exposure of gross Chinese laxity concerning product safety matters. But even so, the fact remains that both "American" and "Canadian" drugs share most, if not all, the same Asian-produced components, and neither country's pharmaceuticals should cost the customer substantially more than the other if not for governmental intervention.
Surely you're not claiming that Chinese manufacturers don't follow good manufacturing practices?
Only taxpayers fund research? Investors don't?
Our Country makes agreements limiting free trade to help the profits of the pharmaceutical companies, who just happen to be some of the biggest donors to political campaigns.
Allowing other countries to impose price controls on our drug companies protects the profits of our dug companies? You'd have to explain exactly how that works. Bringing a new molecular entity to market takes, on average, 12 years and a cost of $800 million. Doesn't sound like the drug companies are getting much bang for all those bribes they're offering political campaigns.
It's always amusing to me that many self avowed "free traders" make all kinds of spurious arguments as to why there is not free trade in drugs.
Argument(s)? I'm only aware of one argument why there is no free trade in the drug industry. It has to do with socialism. The same kind of socialism the protectionists want to see here.
Even so, about 90% of all new drugs introduced into the global market every year are discovered in the US.
Protecting American consumers from adulterated and phony drugs is not a valid reason? Do you also think it's the consumers responsibility to determine if their toys from China contain lead? A recent WTO study found that almost half the drugs being exported from Canada were not what was advertised. There is every reason to be concerned about the quality and purity of drugs coming out of Canada, or any other country for that matter.
Americans who buy their drugs abroad know that they are not getting the benefit of US government protection. Personally, I'd rather use our Border Patrol agents to stop real terrorists and criminals who are trying to cross our border instead of wasting their time prosecuting people who have obviously dismissed the potential dangers of buying drugs from abroad.
And thats the truth: the way to reduce prices is to stop all the frivolous lawsuits, then you can import from Canada because they price will be the same anyway.
His wife sure does support this....(chuckle)
Most people have no idea what the dangers are from purchasing drugs outside the country. If they had any idea that Tony Soprano was involved with the product they currently trust, their opinions would quickly change. Besides, when Canada allows Americans to reimport drugs they're violating the treaty where they agreed not to do so.
If a huge number of Americans were dying as a result of reimported drugs from Canada, then that statement would be correct. However, this is not the case.
Why of course not, don't silly! Do you think I'm some kind of hateful Sinophobe just because I prefer that the cardiac drugs that I depend on for my very life be without contamination by flakes of lead paint, rust, and unidentifiable brown residue?
(sarc)
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