Legalizing reimportation in the US is a good way to fight counterfeiting

By Alex Singleton | 17 July 2005

The pharmaceutical industry has been running an ad campaign in the United States saying that reimportation of drugs from Canada were allowed, those drugs might be counterfeit, unregulated and unsafe. This is simple propaganda and nothing more.

Pfizer's Chief Executive Officer Dr Hank McKinnell has come out and contradicted his industry's advertising. On page 69 of his new book, he says that: "Drugs from Canadian pharmacies are as safe as drugs from pharmacies in the United States." Pfizer vice-president Dr Peter Rost says that drug company lobbyists "know full well" that drug reimportation has "been done safely and cost-effectively... in Europe, for over twenty years... The German Federal Health Ministry has verified that not one single confirmed case of a counterfeit medicine has ever come through the parallel trade chain. The UK regulatory authority has described the level of pharmaceutical counterfeiting as 'virtually undetectable'."

They were not speaking on behalf of their employer.

Dr Rost's view is confirmed by Donald MacArthur of the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies who in November 2003 testified at a US Senate committee. MacArthur said: "As far as can be ascertained there has never been a single, proven case of a counterfeit medicine leaving the parallel trade supply chain in Europe. Certainly, none has been reported in the two largest markets for incoming parallel trade - the UK and Germany; in the case of the latter, the government has recently verified this fact".

In the US, where reimportation is illegal, counterfeiting is on the rise. The ban on reimportation has led many people who cannot afford the cost of drugs from their local pharmacy to use online shops they have never heard of to illegally get cheap drugs. Some of these websites, which are marketed through spam e-mail, claim to be in Canada but are based in developing countries and fail to deliver anything or supply counterfeit drugs.

If the US wants to fight counterfeit drugs, it should follow the European model and let legitimate, properly-regulated businesses, which consumers can trust, safely and securely reimport pharmaceuticals. That way, the drugs get imported from legitimate wholesalers in Canada and Europe. Contrary to claims of pharma's lobbyists, it is America's ban on reimportation that promotes counterfeiting. The US government should adopt free trade in pharmaceuticals not just to reduce prices but to reduce counterfeiting, too.