Canada Web Drug Access Plan to Start
Wisconsin will begin providing its residents with access to Canadian Internet pharmacies today, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday, even as federal regulators issued new warnings to another state that has already done it.
“I can understand why we’re fighting drug companies,” Doyle, a Democrat, said Tuesday. “I can’t understand why we’re fighting the federal government.”
Doyle and three other governors, here for a meeting of the National Governors Assn., organized a summit Tuesday to build political support for importing low-cost prescription drugs from Canada.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration opposes the idea, saying that it can’t guarantee the safety of imported drugs.
Wisconsin will follow the model of Minnesota, which last month launched a website that links to information on two Canadian Internet pharmacies the state has certified as safe and reputable.
FDA Associate Commissioner Bill Hubbard sent a warning letter Monday to Minnesota’s Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, calling the state’s plan “unsafe, unsound and ill-considered.”
“When you recommend to your citizens that they go outside our regulatory system and enter into a ‘buyer beware’ gray zone, you assist those who put profits before patient health,” Hubbard wrote.
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