Posted At The Courier-Journal

By: James Carroll

WASHINGTON -- Challenging President Bush and Republican leaders, Rep. Anne Northup has won a battle in her campaign to allow Americans to buy less expensive drugs from other countries.

The House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment from Northup on a voice vote Tuesday that would block future trade agreements from including bans on the reimportation of prescription drugs.

But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, predicted Northup's amendment "somehow" would be dropped as it moves through Congress.

Northup, R-3rd District, said yesterday she had not talked to DeLay about the issue recently.

"I've already had enough direct conversations and frank conversations with Tom DeLay to know I'm going to have win it fair and square," Northup said.

DeLay's office did not return a call seeking further comment.

Northup acknowledged tension between her and GOP leaders on the issue. But she said she doesn't expect repercussions "because a majority (of House Republicans) agrees with me."

Prescription drugs are less expensive in some other countries, including Canada, which has led some Americans to cross the border to buy them or order them online. It is against the law to do so, but enforcement is rare.

Drug companies say reimportation violates their patents.

Three recent U.S. trade agreements with Australia, Singapore and Morocco have included provisions promising to protect U.S. drug patents.

But Northup said those provisions were the work of American pharmaceutical companies that want to stop the importation of drugs from other nations.

If Congress passes such legislation, she said in an interview yesterday, it would violate the three trade agreements. That would subject U.S. products to higher tariffs as retaliation for the trade violations. "What the pharmaceutical industry was doing was end-running Congress," said Northup, an Appropriations Committee member.

Northup's amendment was attached to a spending bill for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce and other agencies.

The bill is likely to be voted on in the full House next week.

Jennifer Page, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said U.S. trade negotiators -- not drug companies -- negotiated the terms of the agreements.

"We were not in the room during these trade agreements, so how could we be pushing for it to get it in there?" Page said.

Ken Johnson, the pharmaceutical industry group's senior vice president, said in a statement that Northup's provision "seriously undermines all U.S. knowledge-based industries."

Northup's proposal would hinder the trade representative's power "to protect fully the rights of all U.S. patent holders abroad in future trade agreements," Johnson said.

Northup disputed that.

"The patents that our companies have are protected by U.S. law -- they're not protected by trade agreements," she said.

Companies "can recover damages though infringement on those patents through the courts," she said.

The House last year passed legislation allowing the importation of drugs, but the Senate did not take up the measure.

New legislation on the matter is pending in the House and Senate this year.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., voted for Northup's amendment, although he is concerned about whether it would affect U.S. patent law, spokesman Jim Specht said.

Lewis has asked committee lawyers to review the issue, and so far they have had conflicting findings, Specht said.

Lewis also is concerned about Northup's provision "because of leadership's opposition," Specht said.

The pharmaceutical and health-products industry last year gave $17.5 million to political campaigns -- two-thirds of it to Republicans, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Recipients included President Bush's campaign, which got more than $1 million, as well as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and DeLay. Democrats who got industry money included presidential candidate and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.