| On
December 8, 2003, President Bush signed the Medicare Modernization Act. The legislation
gives the Secretary of HHS the authority to implement a system in the U.S. for
the importation of Canadian prescription drugs, however, Section 1122 of the legislation
directs the Secretary to conduct a study that examines whether and under what
circumstances drug importation could be conducted safely, and what its likely
consequences would be for the health, medical costs, and development of new medicines
for American patients. To comply with the Congressional mandate, the Secretary
has formed the Task Force on Drug Importation to advise and assist HHS in this
study. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on behalf of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Task Force on Drug Importation, is now asking
for public comments on the safety and impact of drug importation to reflect public
opinions in the study.
Last year before the Medicare Modernization Act became the law, the National Grange
went up against the importation of prescription drug and strongly opposed the
House Drug Re-importation Bill, H.R. 2427. Read
Grange action alert The National Grange also passed a resolution asking the
Congress not to pass the bill at its 137th annual convention last year. In
January 2004, FDA announced that a series of examinations conducted with the U.S.
Customs & Border Protection (CBP) revealed 1,728 unapproved drugs among the 1,982
parcels inspected; this included so-called "foreign versions" of FDA-approved
drugs, recalled drugs, drugs requiring special storage conditions, drugs requiring
close physician monitoring and drugs containing addictive controlled substances.
This "snap" inspection followed an inspection in July and August 2003, which found
that 88% of the 1,153 imported drug products studied contained unapproved drugs.
PLEASE
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD TOWARD THE HHS DRUG IMPORTATION TASK FORCE THAT YOU OPPOSE
THE ENTIRE IDEA OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS IMPORTATION! CLICK
HERE TO SUBMIT ELECTRONIC COMMENTS Submit
written comments to: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration,
5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. | Sample
Comment | To
Whom It May Concern: I
am writing to you to oppose the entire idea of prescription drugs importation.
The unapproved imported drugs have been threatening our medical and general public
safety as well as retail pharmaceutical market in the United States. It is a band-aid
policy that won't solve fundamental problems of access to prescription drugs.
I believe the Medicare prescription drug cards, soon to be activated, and the
Medicare prescription drug benefit, planned to be implemented from Jan 1, 2006,
will be the only genuine solutions to the drug access problems. Sincerely, (Signature)
(Name)__________________________ (Grange/Grange
name and number) __________________________ |
|
If
you have any questions or comments please contact Legislative Research Analyst
Chil-Sook Hwang by fax: 202-347-1091
or by phone: 1-888-4GRANGE, ext 109. Thank
you for your grassroots participation in the National Grange Legislative program.
Want
to Subscribe To  The New
Grange? For all subscription and circulation inquiries, Contact: Jonathan
Hill. |
