Canada moves to block drug exports

This time it appears the Canadians are serious. Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said on Wednesday that Canadian lawmakers will draft legislation banning the bulk export of prescription drugs to the US. Legislators will also consider a measure which would make it difficult for Canadian doctors to write prescriptions for patients without seeing them. About 2 million Americans rely on inexpensive prescription drugs from Canada, according to some estimates. Sales are believed to be worth only about $800 million per year (compared to overall US sales of more than $220 billion).

In theory, the end of the Canadian supply should prove a major backdoor win for the pharmaceutical industry. Many critics, however, argue that in the era of globalization, reimportation may be a difficult economic problem to contain. The New York Times notes that the move may give "other foreign online suppliers a new competitive edge and encourage Canadian companies to warehouse more of their inventories in other countries."

- see this story from The New York Times

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