A review of Canadian government pharmaceutical production and trade data reveals that American pharmaceutical exports to Canada, combined with Canadian pharmaceutical production, provides less than the required amount of drugs to meet the needs of the Canadian drug market alone. Canada has to rely on imports from countries other than the U.S. to meet its own pharmaceutical supply needs. American advocates of importing prescription drugs from Canada via mail order often claim that these products are “FDA approved” drugs either manufactured in the U.S. and re-imported from Canada or manufactured in Canada. Drugs imported into the U.S. by mail are more likely to be drugs manufactured for the Canadian market and diverted from Canadian pharmacy shelves or drugs manufactured for other foreign markets.

The most recent report from the annual health data survey of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals that spending on hospital and physician services accounts for nearly 55 percent of the $2,726 difference in per capita spending between Canada and the United States.

Patients throughout the world have benefited from health related research and development. Over the past three decades hospitalization rates have dropped dramatically, life expectancy has increased and the quality of life of patients has improved because of increased knowledge about illness and disease and because of the development of new treatments and technologies. Pharmaceutical innovation has played an important role in improving health outcomes.

According to a recent study by the Center for Health System Change, employer-based health insurance premiums increased by 15 percent last year. In fact, health insurance premiums would have been higher if employers had not passed on more costs to consumers through co-payments and higher deductibles.

Patients respond differently to medications, therefore choices among drug treatments are important because physicians can determine what treatments are best for individual patients. Older patients, in particular, may react differently to medications because of frailty, differences in organ function or the co-existence of a number of medical conditions. Product alternatives allow physicians to tailor treatment to individual patient needs.