Illinois
to Seek Exemption to Buy Drugs From Canada
By Monica Davey, the New York Times
December 22, 2003
CHICAGO: Rod R. Blagojevich, the governor of
Illinois, will ask the federal authorities to permit the state to ignore
federal law and buy prescription drugs from Canada, aides said Sunday.
The request, which was met with skepticism
by a federal official, is the latest political maneuver in a swell of
pressure from local and state leaders to cut costs by buying drugs outside
the country's borders.
Mr. Blagojevich, who planned to send the
request on Monday to Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human
services, wants Illinois to be designated for the nation's first
"federally approved drug importation pilot program."
While government officials elsewhere,
including in New Hampshire, have announced that they will simply forge
ahead and assist people in buying drugs from Canada, Mr. Blagojevich says
he will not break the law. Instead, under his proposal, the federal
authorities would waive the law and allow Illinois to save what the
governor estimates could be up to $90.7 million a year by buying Canadian
medicine for state employees and retirees.
In recent months, governors and mayors have
increased pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to allow state and
municipal governments to do what some older Americans have been doing on
their own for years: filling prescriptions in Canada, where regulations
make prices 30 to 50 percent lower.
Even as F.D.A. officials have reiterated
their worries about the safety, security and reliability of the practice,
lawmakers in some Midwestern states and in Northeastern cities, including
New York, have publicly discussed strategies for pursuing the idea.
Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, and Gov. Tim
Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican, have begun planning a Washington
summit on the issue for governors in February, Mr. Blagojevich's aides
said Sunday.
F.D.A officials expressed skepticism about
Mr. Blagojevich's idea.
"Whether the governor wants to stand on
a soapbox, he can do what he wants," said Peter Pitts, the agency's
associate commissioner for external relations. Safety, Mr. Pitts said, is
his agency's central concern. Federal officials say drugs from Canada
carry numerous potential risks: false labeling, counterfeiting and more.
Illinois pays a share of the drug costs for
the state's 230,000 employees and retired employees on its health plan.
According to Mr. Blagojevich's latest request, the state could either
contract with a Canadian pharmacy benefit manager to run the pilot program
by mail order, or the state could work with Canadian sources to buy
certain drugs in bulk, then distribute them from a mail-order center in
Illinois.
On Sunday, Mr. Pitts said he could not
comment on Mr. Blagojevich's latest letter, which he had yet to see.
Still, he said, it sounded similar to earlier proposals Mr. Blagojevich
brought to the F.D.A.
Mr. Pitts said that the federal authorities
intended to study the question of Canadian drugs and their safety for 12
months, but that there were no legal provisions allowing Illinois to be
designated a test state.
But Mr. Blagojevich's general counsel, Susan
R. Lichtenstein, said that language in the recent Medicare legislation
passed by Congress made it clear that Mr. Thompson had broad authority on
such matters. Ms. Lichtenstein said he had the flexibility to allow a
pilot program in a single state if he thought it was safe.
Mr. Thompson could not be reached for
comment on Sunday.
In his draft letter to Mr. Thompson, Mr.
Blagojevich suggested that using Illinois as a test would help Mr.
Thompson's agency and the F.D.A. in sorting out the larger questions.
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