Senate amendment stymies prescription drug imports

May 08, 2007|Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday effectively killed a bid to allow consumers to buy their prescription medicines abroad , requiring U S officials to certify the safety and effectiveness of such drugs.

The certification amendment, passed on a 49-40 vote, would require health officials to do something they have said they cannot.

Because of that, the vote undercut a second measure that would permit prescription drug imports from Food and Drug Administration-approved sources in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand.

The Bush administration opposes allowing imports of prescription drugs, and the White House had threatened a veto.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, called the certification amendment, introduced by Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a "poison pill" for the drug-imports legislation. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, acknowledged it voided his bid to allow the purchase of drugs abroad.

Allowing the imports would drive down U S brand-name drug prices, Dorgan has said.

Similar drug-import legislation is pending in the House.