Importing drugs is not the answer
Trump's initiative to import drugs from Canada is a false flag and doesn't address the reality of how to reduce drug prices. In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act. The bill was introduced by Sen. Tauzin of Louisiana and was written by Big Pharma. It did two things to protect the profitability of the branded drug manufacturers.
It created a "doughnut hole," which meant that the patient would pay out of pocket if the cost of prescriptions for the year exceeded $750 to $3,600. Second, and more importantly it did not allow Medicare to buy Rx drugs on a bid basis. Right after President Bush signed the bill, Sen. Tauzin resigned and became president of Big Pharma's Research and Development Association at a salary exceeding $1 million. If our representatives were serious about fixing the problem, they would eliminate these two flaws in the legislation.
Unfortunately, the left and the right like the money they receive from the drug lobby. In the meantime, the generics, which mostly come from China and India today, have quality control issues that are not being fixed fast enough since these foreign drug manufacturers are only inspected once in five years on average.
Alex Azar of HHS who created the Canadian initiative was a former lawyer for Eli Lilly. The fox is in the hen house.
Thomas A. Braun
Mount Prospect