Posted At Philly.com

BY : Chris Mondics

Voters and members of Congress are frustrated over high prescription-drug costs, and by the end of the year that discontent could inspire a new push for laws that would permit the importation of cheaper medicines from abroad.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa), a high-profile critic of the pharmaceutical industry, describes the pressure from constituents this way: "I have had 84 town meetings since the first of the year, and the issue has come up in two-thirds of them."

Grassley said that if an importation bill came before the Senate this year, it would pass overwhelmingly, winning at least 75 votes.

There is no sign that enough support exists in Congress for directly imposing price controls on prescription drugs in the United States, as do some European nations. But Congress has passed bills to allow drug importation from Canada and Europe - in effect, importing those countries' price controls along with the drugs.

It was only because both the Clinton and current Bush administrations argued that the safety of those imports could not be guaranteed that the programs were never carried out.

Reflecting the popularity among voters of importation, such a proposal, widely endorsed by Democrats, also has Republican support; the sponsor of the main House proposal is Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R., Minn.). A key supporter in the Senate is John McCain (R., Ariz.).

To push the issue, the AARP in June released a study contending that the use of imported medicines in Europe had lowered costs without compromising safety or disrupting supplies.

The AARP said that, despite industry assertions to the contrary, there was no evidence to suggest that importation of lower-priced medicines from countries in southern Europe to more affluent European nations in the north had undermined company profits and affected research and development.

As the nation's most influential advocacy organization for seniors, the AARP has plenty of clout on Capitol Hill. It was AARP support, after all, that helped the Bush administration win passage of the Medicare prescription-drug act, which for the first time commits the government to helping seniors pay their drug bills.

But the drug industry has clout of its own - many lawmakers find validity in its arguments.

And so far, at least, the Bush administration has remained skeptical of importation.