Encouraging consumers to import foreign drugs puts american patients at risk

Patients need to have confidence in the quality, safety and effectiveness of their medicines. In developed countries, governments enact laws and regulations that provide stringent safeguards for drug approval, manufacturing, labelling and distribution.

Despite the obvious importance of such safeguards, some American lawmakers continue to promote the importation of cheap drugs by enabling foreign suppliers to evade the stringent oversight that protects America’s drug supply chain. One of the largest “Canadian” mail order pharmacies has been found to be shipping products from other countries to avoid the oversight of both American and Canadian regulators.

Over the past six years there have been countless revelations of patients being harmed and even killed by sub-standard or counterfeit medicines, which are often sold over the internet and distributed by mail order.

As mail order pharmaceutical exports from Canada to the United States have grown, Canada has become an increasingly important market for drugs from countries like China, Singapore and India. Although it is impossible to ascertain the extent to which foreign drugs entering Canada are then shipped via mail order to the U.S., there can be little doubt that Canadian internet pharmacies are an attractive portal through which foreign drugs can enter the lucrative U.S. market.

	2002	2006	02 to 06 Increase
Argentina	$ 363,149	$29,712,175	8082%
China	$ 38,439,116	$ 80,133,889	108%
India	$ 26,207,466	$37,218,704	42%
Singapore	$ 18,306,100	$48,466,403	165%
Taiwan	$ 886,222	$9,737,024	1099%

To learn more about the issues related to drug safety, visit www.ProtectMyMeds.com.

ProtectMyMeds.com offers up-to-date information on drug safety and counterfeit medicines – read the latest news coverage, position statements from international patient and health care organizations and more.