Answers Sought on Medicine Seizures

A congressman from each side of the aisle demanded an explanation Wednesday for increased government seizures of cheap drugs mailed to U.S. customers by Canadian pharmacies.

“We believe this unannounced policy of increased enforcement is irresponsible,” said Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration and to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“There is a growing chorus of outraged Americans concerned that access to affordable prescription drugs is being denied to them,” reads the letter, also signed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.).

Gutknecht also said in his letter that an increase in seizures would violate the will of Congress, which has for three years denied FDA funding to prevent the importation of prescription drugs for personal use.

Ordering drugs from abroad is illegal. But Customs and FDA officials have generally allowed the practice, apart from occasional, small-scale seizures designed to publicize potential risks.

Canadian pharmaceutical retailers and state-sponsored drug-buying programs in the U.S. have reported a sharp rise in seizures since late last year -- by some accounts to 5% of shipments from less than 1%. But federal regulators have said that their policy has not changed.

Christina Pearson, spokeswoman for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, said there was no effort to clamp down on shipments of cheap drugs from abroad to protect Medicare’s new prescription discount program.

“If there are enforcement actions happening through Customs, those are unrelated to the implementation of the Medicare benefit,” she said. “We have not coordinated between Medicare and Customs on this.”

Senior citizens and health advocates in the U.S., however, are complaining about the stepped-up seizures.

“The crackdown looks like it’s more about the safety of the drug industry profits than it is about the safety of patients,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of California Health Access, a coalition of advocacy groups.

Last year, Americans spent an estimated $800 million on prescription drugs from Canada and an equal amount on medications from other foreign countries.

People whose drugs are seized are not cited and generally can get them replaced free of charge by the foreign pharmacy. Now, however, some customers are losing reshipments to seizure as well, mail-order pharmacy experts say.

Mail-order pharmacies say the crackdown involves parcels passing through international mail centers in Carson, where medications shipped through Los Angeles International Airport are inspected. Mail centers in Miami, Chicago and New York also are involved.

Alonso-Zaldivar reported from Washington and Girion from Los Angeles.