Since drug re-importation has become such a major issue in politics and government, we have decided it was important to display the FACTS to so much FICTION.

Drug re-importation from Canada has become a major issue in the United States, and much has been written about our industry in the media. The American public has been told on numerous occasions by the FDA, the drug manufacturers, and certain politicians, that drugs from Canada are not safe and that the high prices are justified by research and development costs.

Our industry has finally exposed the one fact that drug manufacturers have been trying to hide for years that Americans pay more for their prescription medications than any other nation in the world. The drug companies will do whatever it takes to protect their financial status as the most profitable industry in the world and they have used safety as an issue to discourage Americans from ordering prescription drugs from Canada. The FDA and several politicians who are funded by the drug companies have expressed similar concerns and have also discouraged this practice.

We feel the facts speak for themselves and we feel the final decision is yours to make.

1. It is justifiable for pharmaceutical companies to drastically increase drug prices due to research and development costs.

2. Americans are paying the same amount for their prescription drugs as Canadians and the rest of the world.

3. Americans put their safety at risk anytime they purchase lifesaving medications from Canadian mail order pharmacies. Their prescriptions are not scrutinized and dispensed by licensed Canadian pharmacists from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

4. All U.S. lawmakers agree that the F.D.A. case against reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada is correct.

5. Taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely when it comes to healthcare spending.

6. Your Elected Officials and Healthcare providers genuinely care about you.

7. Drug companies care more about U.S. citizens’ healthcare than profit and their own bottom line.

8. Drug companies are reliable, honest, and ethical and always think of what’s best for the patient.

9. Americans are content with their current prescription drug coverage and the affordability of drugs in the U.S.

10. The main reason the FDA opposes drug imports from Canada is because they are concerned about the safety of U.S. citizens.

11. The Medicare drug program is the solution to the healthcare crisis in the U.S.

12. There is no collusion between drug companies and politicians.

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2. Americans are paying the same amount for their prescription drugs as Canadians and the rest of the world.

• Everyday in the United States there are patients who pay for their prescription drugs entirely out-of-pocket. Lack of health insurance extends beyond the poor and elderly to the working class and the self-employed. But they all share one thing in common, they pay too much for their drugs, especially when they can be mailed to their doorstep for half the cost. So why aren't more Americans buying their medications from Canadian pharmacies where they can save 40-70%? (December 14, 2005 - Emediawire)


• On Capital Hill, some argue that importing drugs from foreign countries offers a way to reduce the price of prescription medicines. Indeed, polls focusing on re-importation exclusively as a price-reducing mechanism receive overwhelming support. Many polls show support between 70 percent and 80 percent. (November 9, 2005 - The Washington Times)


• Two Republican state lawmakers are touting legislation they say would help lower the costs of health care for individuals and businesses. While the two packages, introduced in recent weeks are unrelated, they could come as welcome relief to a state staggering under the economic burden of spiraling health care costs. (November 6, 2005 - TheOaklandPress.com)


• A report AARP published in July said that importation of lower-priced medicines from countries in southern Europe to more affluent Western European countries had lowered costs without compromising safety or disrupting supplies. (September 20, 2005 - Usinfo.state.gov)
• In 2003, Americans spent $216.4 billion on prescription drugs, up 11 percent from the previous year. (July 27, 2005 - Oakland Press)

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3. Americans put their safety at risk anytime they purchase lifesaving medications from Canadian mail order pharmacies. Their prescriptions are not scrutinized and dispensed by licensed Canadian pharmacists from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

• A recent study found that 12 million American prescriptions were filled in Canada in 2003 for a total of $700 million in sales. (Fox News - February 21, 2006)


• The Customs spokesperson claim that their actions protect 'national security' which interestingly coincides with the publication of a new 'novel' that uses as its premise a terrorist link with prescription drugs from Canada, a novel financed by the pharmaceutical industry. (December 15, 2005 - Yahoo)


• American consumers should know that Health Canada safety standards are equivalent to if not greater than FDA regulations in various aspects and thus an indicator that reimportation can be maintained on a safe basis. (October 27, 2005 - Times Argus)


• Consumer Reports and government research shows drugs mail ordered from Canada are more likely to be pure and safe. (September 26, 2005 - DailyBreeze.com)


• Many Americans, meanwhile, believe that buying from Canada, where a government review board has the authority to limit drug prices it deems excessive, is no more dangerous than picking up a prescription at a local drugstore. (September 18, 2005 - Ashbury Park Press)

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4. All U.S. lawmakers agree that the F.D.A. case against reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada is correct.

• Rep. Stephanie Herseth and Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune (South Dakota) have co-sponsored various bills introduced in 2005 to allow drugs to be bought in certain countries. (Argus Leader - February 23, 2006)


• Sen. Johnson (South Dakota) has been involved in several initiatives to cut prescription costs and allow people to buy medications in Canada. (Argus Leader - February 23, 2006)


• A bill to allow Oklahomans to reimport US-manufactured drugs from Canada and other industrialized nations clears a Senate committee today. The bill is being pushed by Governor Brad Henry, who says many other states around the country have similar laws. (KTEN - February 24, 2006)


• Governor Brad Henry wants the state to allow Oklahomans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. (January 31, 2006 - Kten.com)

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5. Taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely when it comes to healthcare spending.

• The pressure on leaders is likely to increase. Stabenow and fellow Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota predicted at least 60 senators will support drug reimportation. (July 28, 2005 - Kentucky.com)
• Tennesseans pay a higher percentage of their personal income for prescription drugs than residents of any other state, in fact 65% above the national average according to a study cited by Tennessee Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy group. (Tennessean.com – August 6, 2004)

6. Your current elected officials care about you and have your best interests at heart.

• The Bush Administration has actively opposed Congressional efforts to allow Americans to buy drugs from Canada. In March, Bush appointed a longtime foe of reimportation, Mark McClellan to run Medicare and Medicaid. (Time Magazine – October 10, 2004)


• Republicans and their drug company allies are doing everything they can to prevent Americans from accessing cheaper prescription drugs. (July 28, 2005 - The Nation)


• Under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, the American Food and Drug Administration routinely conceals information it considers commercially sensitive, leaving medical specialists unable to assess the true risks. (June 12, 2005 - The Independent)


• Vital data on prescription medicines found in millions of British homes has been suppressed by the powerful US drug regulators, even though the information could potentially save lives. (June 12, 2005 - The Independent)


• President Bush is currently seeking an increase of 2.7 percent, or $880 million, in Health Care spending. The president would increase the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs to $15, from the current $7. (February 7, 2005 - New York Times)

7. Drug companies care more about U.S. citizens healthcare than profit and their own bottom line.

• But it is the vulnerable that pay the costs of corruption. And the prescription drug program is a perfect example. (January 25, 2006 - BlackNews.com)


• Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon sued four drug companies Wednesday for allegedly bilking the state out of $19 million over the past decade for inflating Medicare prescription drug prices. (December 22, 2005 - The Joplin Globe)


• PhRMA has vigorously fought all efforts to legalize the purchase of cheap drugs from Canada. Even though the lobby has found some success, the underground business still takes an estimated $1 billion in annual profits from American drug behemoths. (October 17, 2005 - New York Daily News)


• Supporters say it will force pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices and their astronomical profits. But the drug lobby is trying to kill this bill.. Saying it’s the patients who will lose in the end. (September 16, 2005 – ABC 7 Medical)


• Prescription drug manufacturers have anted up $72 million to get Proposition 79 defeated and the measure they support, Proposition 78, passed, according to news reports. (September 7, 2005 - Rednova)

8. Drug companies are reliable, honest, and ethical and always think of what’s best for the patient.

• Our most vulnerable citizens are paying the costs of Washington corruption. This is a drug program written by and for the insurance companies and the drug companies by comprised and compliant Bush political appointees and Republican legislators. (January 25, 2006 - BlackNews.com)


• Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc set aside about $80 million to block a California proposal requiring them to offer discounts to lower-income residents. (November 8, 2005 - Bloomberg.com)


• These days, pharmaceutical companies rank even below tobacco companies in the public's esteem, Kirk Huber of Novartis reports. (October 14, 2005 - DailyRecord.com)


• Pharmaceutical industry representatives acknowledge that prescription drugs are expensive in the District but argue that the legislation would reduce revenue and profits needed to develop drugs. (October 21, 2005 - WashingtonPost.com)


• Big pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars on drugs that have harmed thousands of people in Michigan, leaving them with lifelong disabilities, overwhelming medical bills and, sometimes, the loss of a loved one. (September 13, 2005 - Lansing State Journal)

9. Americans are content with their current prescription drug coverage and the affordability of drugs in the U.S.

• Montgomery County will sue the Food and Drug Administration in an attempt to overturn the agency's decision not to grant the county a waiver to import prescription drugs from Canada for public employees. (WTOP - February 23, 2006)


• AARP leaders decided to do an about face: renew class to reimport drugs from Canada and push for the government's right to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. (February 1, 2006 - TPMCafe.com)


• With health care costs soaring and many employers scaling back job-based benefits, health insurance has, by many accounts, become one of the most significant issues facing Arizona and the nation as a whole. When the Arizona Legislature reconvenes next week, health care is anticipated to be the subject of several bills. (January 4, 2006 - Azcentral.com)


• Nine percent of the American public considers the pharmaceutical industry generally honest and trustworthy. (January 10, 2006 - NewsTarget.com)


• The pharmaceutical industry has a story to tell - and a bottomless bank account with which to tell it - but it is a self-interested story. (January 10, 2006 - NewsTarget.com)

10. The main reason the FDA opposes drug imports from Canada is because they are concerned about the safety of U.S. citizens.

• FDA and Customs Department Actions to restrict vital prescription drugs endangers the health and lives of America's seniors. (December 15, 2005 - Yahoo)


• The FDA now gets more than half the money it needs for testing new drugs from drugmakers themselves, raising questions about whether the agency can be trusted to protect consumers. (November 8, 2005 - CNN Money)


• Under fire over drug safety and under pressure to speed new treatments to market, the Food and Drug Administration spent more than $400 million last year reviewing new product applications, with 53 percent of that coming from drug companies. (November 8, 2005 - CNN Money)


• A quarter of US women say they're skipping doctor visits and delaying or skipping buying prescribed drugs because they can't afford them. (July 8, 2005 - Arizona Central)


• Initially, it was just elderly residents of border states who traveled individually or by the busload to get their prescriptions filled at Canadian pharmacies, where they are 40 percent or more cheaper. Then, a handful of cities and now five states have joined in, setting up Internet shopping networks that allow 2 million Americans to buy their drugs at Canadian discounts. (July 6, 2005 - Baltimore Sun)

11. The Medicare drug program is the solution to the healthcare crisis in the U.S.

• The only group that benefits from the Bush drug benefit program is Big Pharma. Which of course, was the whole point all along. Just another Bush handout to his campaign financers. (News Target - February 23, 2006)


• President Bush marketed his Medicare drug benefit program as a popular handout that would put more prescription drugs in seniors' pockets and more money in State coffers. But as it turns out, the drug benefit promises were completely fabricated, just like "weapons of mass destruction". In reality, the federal drug program has turned into a national nightmare that has left hundreds of thousands of low-income seniors without prescriptions, and States actually owing the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars as payment for the fiasco. (News Target - February 23, 2006)


• The report concluded that the Part D drug plans are on average the most expensive, despite promises from the federal government that the program would keep drug costs down. (January 31, 2006 - Recordnet.com)


• A report from the U.S. House Government Reform Committee finds that drug prices offered by the private Medicare prescription-drug plans are more than 80 percent higher than prices negotiated by the federal government for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those same private-plan prices are 60 percent higher than prices U.S. citizens pay for drugs from Canada. (January 31, 2006 - Recordnet.com)

12. There is no collusion between drug companies and politicians.

• As you'll recall, our representatives deliberately prevented Medicare from using its market power to negotiate lower prices with the pharmaceutical industry as the Veterans Administration does, as Canada and other nations do. Given the chance to help average Americans, Congress kissed up to the industry instead. (Sun-Sentinel - February 21, 2006)


• Considering that the law (Medicare part D) was drafted with special regard for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, it prohibits the government from using its market power to bargain for lower drug prices, the hole in this bill will work hardship on millions of Americans whose drug bills can quickly rise to $5,000 or more a year. The bill also seeks to prevent Americans from buying drugs in Canada, a stratagem that is supported by some states in this region of the country. (December 22, 2005 - Toledo Blade)


• Republican Sen. Jon Kyl has received more than $143,000 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical firms since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. (October 13, 2005 - The Business Journal)


• Sen. Kyl's backers include Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, Bayer Corp., Eli Lilly & Co., Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, according to Federal Election Commission filings. (October 13, 2005 - The Business Journal)