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23-7-2003 - HUBBUB Over Pharmaceutical Market Access Act

9:36 am GMT

It's a given that prescription drugs cost too much in America. This week has spurred this vital issue to the forefront as the 'Act', introduced by Rep.Gil Gutknecht, R-Minnesota, also known as H.R. 2427, is being dicussed in Congress and will be voted on within a few weeks. The pots have been stirred! This bill would make it legal to score the drugs in 25 different countries.

"The FDA has stood between Americans and affordable pharmaceuticals for too long," Gutknecht said. "This bill will take a historic step in reducing the dramatic prescription drug price disparities. It is outrageous that the world's best consumers are forced to pay 30 to 300-percent more than our friends in Canada and Europe."

The Pharmaceutical Market Access Act allows American consumers to import FDA-approved prescription drugs from FDA-approved facilities in 25 industrialized countries. The bill has the added benefit of improving safety provisions for Americans purchasing their drugs from other countries."

Wooeee. The American drug companies are having hissy fits in chorus with the FDA and what sneaky bastards they are.

""We're fighting it tooth and nail," said Jeffrey Trewhitt, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group."

Ohboy, check this part out.

"The industry trade group has also joined forces with abortion opponents, who recently sent fliers to voters saying the bill would allow Americans easy access to the abortion pill RU-486. The fliers, based on a legal memorandum drafted by the trade group, are sent specifically to conservatives who support the reimportation measure. One shows a baby and states that if the drug importation bill passes, abortion pills "may become as easy to get as aspirin.""

This is interesting, and Hoekstra has taken a lot of flack over his stance on the bill.

"U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra hopes a bill aimed at allowing the re-importation of U.S.-made prescription drugs from foreign countries will force drug companies to lower their prices in the United States.

Hoekstra, who has drawn criticism for his stand from the pharmaceutical industry and a prominent televangelist, said he doesn't expect the legislation would actually lead to drugs being resold in the United States, but to a more reasonable pricing structure for prescription medications.

Hoekstra spoke on the House floor this week in support of H.R. 2427, the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003 and plans a news conference Monday to rebut what he called false information about his stance in local newspaper ads." Want to know who the televangelist is? Ha. Jerry Falwell, who else?

The debate on this is quite strong. The Washington Times came out with a horror story op-ed piece yesterday on why it shouldn't be made into law.

"Americans have every reason to be confident that the prescription drugs they receive are safe, effective, pure and potent. Our regulatory system is the gold standard; we trust it, and we rely on it. But our confidence would be shattered in a moment and our health threatened in an instant if that standard were suddenly lowered or violated, which is what could happen if Congress passes H.R. 2427, a drug importation bill slated for a House vote this week."

It goes on to cite cases, one about a woman receiving a bogus cancer drug and another about a woman who ordered a four year supply online, only to find that it expired in two weeks. Note that the latter purchased hers online. That's not what this bill is about. It only makes sense that the drug companies would cry counterfeit to bolster their opposition. Dirty pool is being played here. This may be about money on both sides, but the real issue is about the people who need and can't afford life-saving drugs.

Aha, I should have known. This was written by someone who has a lot to lose if this is passed, Carl B. Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

This is so synchronous. I'd already copied some stuff from Biotechnology Industry Organization to use like right about now, funk soul brother, but first take a look at the ads on this page. I hope they're not those that change with each page view.

Related Advertising Links

Drug Store Outlet
Order: Weight Loss, Hair Loss, Pain Relief Drugs & Viagra Online!
DrugStoreOutlet.com
Prescription Pain Drugs
Join members area for pharmacies, get prescriptions required for meds
www.rxpaindrugs.com

I'm truly losing it right now. Why in the hell are those ads there for a rant and roll like this? Only on the net. Anyway, gooesy gander time.

"On behalf of the 1,000 members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), I would like to convey our very strong concern and objection to H.R. 2427, the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003, which would significantly weaken regulation on the importation of prescription drugs and subject Americans to a potentially unsafe drug supply. Today, American citizens have absolutely the safest supply of medicines in the world. We cannot afford to risk that safety by enacting H.R. 2427. We understand the bill may be considered by the House in the near future, and we urge you to vote against it."

It's all about money again, but what isn't? Once again, the people who need to be able to score their drugs from other countries so they can survive on the saved cash are being ignored and basically pissed on. They have reason to be pissed off. I hate getting personal, but there are two drugs I need for survival. In California the thyroid one was around 15 dollars for a month's suppy if I remember right, and the Klonopin needed to prevent the jerks caused by the DoD test on a beach there, is expensive. Here, without prescription I get the Synthroid equivalent for 3 euros, the Klon, 4 euros. Yikes, having to get even more personal, but it's needed to make my point. Let's put it this way, I'm not the healthiest person on the planet and I wouldn't be able to work if I were in the states and would have to slum it to some sort of assistance just for existance. Where would the money come from for these medicines? I have no thyroid, I HAVE to take those pills to stay alive. Oh yeah, I'm starting to steam. There are others a zillion times worse off than me. What the fuck do they do??

I want to go in some radical directions, but I need to focus on this bill on the Hill. Hooray for web.morons.com. They went there for me. It talks about Falwell's outrage at this, it's called 'Extreme Right Fighting Extreme Right' and it went on about a radio ad aimed at seniors which the writer believed to be put out by the drug companies.

"Presumably to show that they're more extreme than even Falwell, the group "Frontiers of Freedom" attempted to establish a link between drugs produced outside the US and terrorism. Really. Their vice-president of policy, Kerry Houston said that "Terrorists ... are absolutely involved in the smuggling of prescription drugs between borders.

If that's the case (quite a supposition), wouldn't it make sense to allow foreign drugs to be imported legally? Then we can stop terrorists and their evil poisoned drugs!"

Ohwow, get this! "The "Traditional Values Coalition" also attacked Gutknecht over the bill, claiming that children everywhere will start buying RU486 with their parents' credit cards, claiming it will be as easy to get as aspirin. To our great amusement, the TVC was kicked out of the House "Values" Action Team for a year as a result of their attack.

I encourage you to look at HR 2427 for yourself and make up your own mind about what the act provides for. The basic argument for the proposal is that the same prescription drug costs several times more in the US compared with other countries, and opening the market to international competition from counties with acceptable quality standards would help to drive down prices. The main argument against the bill is that the FDA cannot give assurances about the quality of imported drugs and there exists the potential for counterfeit drugs to be imported into the US."

Web.morons illicited comments and I was most amused by these, all written yesterday.

"I SOOOOOO love love love fundies. They are SO goddamn STUPID! I saw a TV ad which I interpreted as being a scare tactic by the US drug companies and figured that they were trying to screw with old peoples' minds about shipping in less costly medications. I mean, the oldsters take bus trips to Canada to fill their prescriptions there. So what's the difference? I know that drug companies need money to invent new drugs but they are also greedy bastards. Did I mention greedy bastards? Oh, yeah, that leads right into Falwell. He is such an idiot. They are all idiots."

"No, no, no! Foriegn drugs will have very negative consequences - Canadian drugs will make you want to marry a person of the same sex, German drugs will make you into a Nazi (not that we completely hate Nazis, they have some good ideas, they just have a bad rep), French drugs will make you a cowardly wimp, and Chinese drugs will turn you into a communist. The only good drugs are the ones made here in the USA, buying foreign takes money away from Americans.

That's the bullshit line.

If Congress lets in foreign drugs then I will have to lower my prices to remain competitive, but if I lower my prices then I cannot afford to purchase my new private jet or the vacations all over the world I would be able to take with the new private jet. I could care less if you will go broke and have to eat cat food because your prescripstions are so high, its my money, I deserve this jet and these vacations, is it my fault your ass got sick? Give me your money, all of it."

"First they piss and fucking whine about about the story about some clownfish cartoon character being a transexual creature that was created by liberals, which I think is an absolute crock! Now the fundie dumbshits attempt to link a imported birth control pill to fucking terrorism! ARE THESE PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET OR SOMETHING?! Now I know the evangelists are full of shit! Not bad for a group of lunatics that are two steps from left their more violent conservative muslim counterparts back east!"

Then there's a group, suprisingly Seniors Coalition, who is opposed to the bill. Headlined, "Drug bill receives criticism", it began with "Flora “Grandma” Green talked to seniors Monday at September House Senior Center in York about a bill she thinks could threaten the safety of America’s prescription drug supply." It was more about the counterfeit and bad quality drugs that could be received instead of the real thing. Aha, reading on reveals the seniors coaltion receives grants from the pharmaceutical industry, which has lobbied against the bill on a safety platform." Ahem.

From the same source. "Other groups say money is the real reason for the opposition.

“This is a back-door way to bring price controls into the states,” said David Keating, executive director of The Club for Growth, which opposes the bill because, he says, it will take away drug companies’ incentive to develop medication."

Will it pass? I hope so, but given that the drug companies provided the bulk of monies to especially Republican campaigns in 2002, in reality it could go either way.

UPDATE. 25/7/03 4:42 GMT

"The bill, which passed early Friday morning on a 243-186 vote, marks a defeat for the pharmaceutical industry, which spends millions of dollars lobbying Congress.

It now heads to the Senate, where its approval is less certain. Fifty-three senators have already declared their opposition to any change that would deny the secretary of Health and Human Services the ability to decide whether importation was safe.

But according to supporters of the legislation, medical patients and seniors would be the big winners because they could get lower-priced drugs."

Yay!!!

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."
--Rudyard Kipling

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