Government
Drug reimportation on the rise
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 8, 2004
American patients bought $1.1 billion in prescription drugs from Canada in 2003. That is more than double the previous year, according to a study by pharmaceutical sales tracking firm IMS Health, Fairfield, Conn. That is still only a small proportion of the total $216.4 billion spent on prescription drugs in the United States last year. An IMS Health spokesman said that the trend may be falling off as the Food and Drug Administration cracks down on Internet pharmacies sending the drugs over the border. But more and more state governments have been ramping up efforts to facilitate the reimportation of drugs from Canada. Meeting in Washington, D.C., recently, several governors expressed a desire to expand already launched reimportation.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/08/gvbf0308.htm.