Canadian Government Bending Under Pressure from US Pharmaceutical Industry
Canadian Health Minister is putting pressure on Canadian physicians who co sign US prescription, in order for them to be filled through Canadian pharmacies.
(PRWEB) January 12, 2005
It seems that the Canadian Government may have finally given in to US Pharmaceutical lobbying. Recently, Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh stated that the government will crack down on the Canadian mail order pharmaceutical industry. This crackdown would devastate the industry and it would also shut the door on a service that many senior citizens have come to rely on to safely get the prescription drugs at prices they can afford.
The government plans on attacking Canadian doctors who issue prescription for US patients after reviewing their medical file, but without physically examining them. This is done in order to comply with Canadian health practices which state that a prescription can be filled only if reviewed by a Canadian doctor. Now, the government reasons that this system is unethical and unsafe and plans on amending the Canadian Food and Drug Act so that Canadian doctors can only issue a prescription if they have examined the patient personally. This essentially means that the US patients will have to come to Canada and visit a Canadian doctor in order to be able to pay the Canadian prices for the medications and there will be no place for mail order pharmacies.
However, is the problem really the ethics of the medical profession? Are Canadian doctors putting the health of their American patients at risk by giving them a second medical review? IsnÂ’t this a way to say that American doctors are unprofessional and negligent so as to put their patients at risk by giving them wrong prescriptions? If the minister believes this, why does the Canadian government send hundreds of Canadian patients to get treated in the United States?
And why is the pressure and mistrust of the medical profession coming only from the minister and not the medical associations of Canada? WouldnÂ’t these associations have the expertise to accurately assess the safety of the industry? Minister Dosanjh's portrayal of the process of a Canadian physician double checking the American prescription, as "unprofessional" and "unethical" demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the benefit that the Canadian physician brings to the US patient. Their review of an existing U. S. prescription serves as a "double check" of the patient's medical profile and possible drug interactions as in confirmation with Canadian health standards. When a problem is discovered the two physicians often consult each other and often provide other alternatives to the patient.
The president of CIPA (Canadian International Pharmacy Association) Andy Troszok states: "The government and the colleges are condemning a process that actually saves lives, just to avoid liability exposure. It seems they have their priorities mixed up".
Moreover, after a Health Canada inspection of 11 Canadian mail order pharmacies conducted on November 16, 2004 (“Obligations of Pharmacists under the Food and Drugs Act and Food and Drug Regulations”), the issue of reviewing U. S prescriptions was never a problem. The only reference to that was a ban on “electronic or rubber-stamp signatures”, as the doctor’s signature has to be in hand.
Why such a dramatic change on behalf of Canadian government, who just a month ago, was telling the Canadian public not to worry about the internet pharmacy industry? Why shut down a one billion dollar growing industry that brought over 5,000 jobs on the market?
This sudden change of heart comes at a particularly beneficial time for US-Canada relations. The Minister’s statement appeared immediately following President Bush’s visit to Ottawa, where the internet pharmacy issue was discussed. Coincidently the “mad cow disease” question has been finally resolved in the benefit of Canadian agriculture as the US has finally opened its borders to Canadian beef. It seems that the Canadians traded the internet pharmacy industry for its beef industry. Moreover, Health Minister Mr. Dosanjh has stated himself that he has received a visit from a large pharmaceutical company and that “They have expressed their displeasure over the cross-border trade”. The minister declined to elaborate further on this meeting.
The Canadian government has decided to crack down on the most vulnerable sector of the internet pharmacy industry – Canadian doctors. However this issue is the least relevant one. We all know what is at stake here, and it is not the health of American citizens. The real concern is the billions of dollars pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and Pfizer are losing to small entrepreneurial Canadian pharmacies. And they are putting all of their efforts into lobbying Bush administration to end the importation of drugs from Canada. At the moment there are three pharmaceutical lobbyists to every Congressman in Washington.
However President Bush is no fool. This issue is politically dangerous for him to make a final decision on it. If Bush administration shuts down the re-importation of Canadian drugs, he will lose the support of the senior population. But the President is also receiving heat from the pharmaceutical pharmacies and he can not install price regulations on the drugs to make them more affordable. So instead he is passing the problem onto the Canadian government who has far less at stake and who in exchange of shutting down the mail order industry, get back the exports on beef and lumber.
According to Elena Ivantsova, Business Development Manager at AffordableDrugs. com - one of the leading Canadian mail order pharmacies – “Canada has always been a humanitarian country, who is ready to help others. Canada is the easiest solution for many who cannot afford the high cost of drugs in the United States right now. This is our chance to help American seniors and improve our relations with the US, by making it more convenient for Americans to shop in Canada. Instead, the Canadian government is fighting for rich multinational pharmaceutical companies to make more money. We strongly urge Mr. Dosanjh not to ban our industry but instead apply better practices. Needless to say, our company has already developed other alternatives for our patients to get cheaper prescriptions drugs. We have developed expertise and efficacy in helping Americans get their meds at lower prices and with a service better than in their local pharmacies and we are going to use it. Trust me, we are here to stay.”
Our government is threatening doctors today; tomorrow it might be patients themselves who will be threatened. Hopefully, Americans will continue fighting for their right to affordable health care.
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