Posted At Kentucky.com

BY : Bruce Schreiner

A bill seeking federal consent to allow Kentucky pharmacists to obtain cheaper imported drugs for customers won approval Thursday from a House committee divided largely along partisan lines.

Opening Kentucky to imported prescriptions would result in huge savings for state government and consumers strapped by soaring drug costs, state Auditor Crit Luallen told the committee. The bill represents a trend in which many states are considering ways to get safe and cheaper imported drugs to consumers, she said.

"The train on this issue is leaving the station," Luallen said. "We believe that it's important for Kentucky to not miss this opportunity."

The bill cleared the House Health and Welfare Committee on an 11-5 vote.

It would authorize Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration to ask federal health regulators for permission to allow pharmacists, distributors and wholesalers in Kentucky to obtain imported drugs from licensed, foreign suppliers. Pharmacists could sell the imported drugs to consumers just like any other prescriptions.

Supporters included the committee's Democrats and Republican Rep. Steve Nunn of Glasgow. Other committee Republicans voted against the measure.

Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said the governor opposes the bill.

"We believe Kentuckians ought to have access to the safest and most affordable prescription drugs possible," she said in an interview. "We do not believe this bill reaches that end."

Andrea Douglas, with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, warned that drug imports would pose "a public health threat to Kentucky citizens."

"For the better part of 100 years, Americans have been confident that when they pick up a prescription, what's on the label is in the bottle," she told the committee. "This comfort will be gone if we begin to depend on drugs of uncertain origin that are produced and stored in conditions beyond the FDA's control."

Opponents on the committee voiced similar worries.

"My concern is safety," said Rep. Bob DeWeese, R-Louisville, who is a surgeon.

Douglas said there's no evidence imported drugs would produce savings for consumers. She said uninsured or underinsured consumers are better off seeking lower-cost medicines through discount programs offered by the drug industry or charities.

The debate about drug importation has spread from Congress to statehouses. Some committee members expressed impatience with Congress on the issue.

Luallen said the bill would apply to U.S.-made drugs shipped to other countries and then reimported to the United States and to foreign-made drugs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows drug imports from 25 countries that have safety regulations comparable to those in the United States, she said. Pharmaceutical companies already can purchase drugs from those countries, she said.

Luallen said pharmacists, distributors and wholesalers should have that same right.

"This is an issue of freedom of choice, of free market, of allowing the opportunity for these drugs to move back and forth much as other products do between the countries," she said.

She noted that the FDA inspects hundreds of foreign drug plants.

Citing a report by her office, Luallen estimated drug importations could save the state more than $70 million each year in Medicaid and public employee health insurance costs. She said other consumers could have their drug costs cut by nearly a third.

She said that Canadians, on average, pay 40 percent less for drugs than Americans.

Bill Harned, president of AARP Kentucky, an interest group for older people, said Kentuckians should get "the same deal that Canadians are getting" on prescription costs.

"We know drugs made at a single plant are shipped both to Canada and the U.S. And yet that same drug from that same batch can cost 50 percent less in Canada," he said.

If federal regulators consented to the drug imports, Kentucky health officials would set up safety standards on packaging and licensing, among other things.