Healthy Skepticism Library item: 77

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Publication type: news

U.S. Sues Company for Importing Drugs from Canada
Reuters 2003 Sep 11

Full text:

WASHINGTON () – The U.S. Justice Department (news – web sites) on Thursday sued the drug store chain Rx Depot Inc. and asked a court to stop the company from importing discounted prescription drugs from Canada in violation of federal law.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court in Oklahoma, the Justice Department requested an injunction against Rx Depot Inc., Rx Canada, Rx Depot President Carl Moore and Secretary David Peoples.

Moore said the lawsuit had been expected and said he and his company would fight it.

Prescription drugs are usually cheaper in neighboring Canada, often a fraction of U.S. prices. But the U.S. government has opposed efforts to create an importation plan that supporters say would particularly help the elderly pay for medicine.

Before filing for the injunction, the Justice Department, at the urging of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news – web sites), sent Moore a letter asking the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company to stop its activity.

“The defendants cause the importation of prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, which clearly violates the law and poses significant risks to the public health,” the government said in the court filing.

“Drugs that are imported from foreign countries do not have the same assurance of safety and efficacy as drugs that are regulated by FDA,” it said. “Because the drugs are not subject to FDA oversight and are not continuously under the custody of a U.S. manufacturer or authorized distributor, their quality is unpredictable.”

The government said the drugs could be counterfeit or contain “erratic amounts” of the active ingredient, or could have been held under uncertain storage conditions.

“In addition, the defendants expose their customers to potentially life-threatening problems by dispensing a greater quantity of drugs than is requested by the prescribing physician.”

The complaint charged that Rx Depot advertises and sells preset quantities of drugs and dispenses those quantities regardless of how much drug is prescribed. It said the company does not give directions instructing patients to take the drug for only the number of days prescribed by their doctor.

Moore said his company abides by the law, and he disputed the idea that the imported drugs might be unsafe.

“Reimportation has been in place for years,” he said. “We’re just simply not going to be slapped in the face like that.”

Rx Depot does business in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has stores in a number of locations around the United States. It imports U.S.- and foreign-manufactured prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies and sells them to U.S. citizens, the Justice Department said.

Rx Canada is a separate U.S. entity owned by Moore’s son. It is involved in the same business.

In recent months a handful of big drugmakers, led by GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Pfizer Inc., have moved to block their drugs from being shipped from Canadian pharmacies to U.S. customers, citing safety concerns.