Government
Reimport request denied
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 21, 2004
The Food and Drug Administration has denied a request by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to set up a pilot program for reimporting drugs from Canada.
The proposed program would have allowed the state to save an estimated $56.5 million on prescriptions through contracting with a Canadian pharmacy benefits manager or through the state acting as a bulk purchaser. The program have would been limited to 230,000 state employees and retirees and to drugs agreed upon by the state and the federal government.
The FDA indicated in a letter to the governor that the proposal could not be authorized under current law and presented added safety concerns.
In a separate letter, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, encouraged Blagojevich to consider a multistate Medicaid drug purchasing pool, like the one recently authorized by his agency.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/06/21/gvbf0621.htm.
