Reimporting Prescription Drugs from Other Countries Dangerous, Report Says

Several bills in Congress that would allow consumers and businesses to reimport prescription drugs would "jeopardize ... health but also decrease pharmaceutical profits and eventually raise ... costs," according to a report released Sept. 16, CongressDaily reports. Issuing the report at a drug industry press briefing, Phillip Manuel, a former chief investigator for the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, and Anthony Daniels, a former FBI agent who specialized in counterintelligence, said there is a "drug distribution subculture" being established in Canada. "Based on our experience, we believe that the unrestricted importation of drugs from Canada will create a whole new class of diversion profiteers and brokers who obtain goods in the gray market, often by means of fraudulent misrepresentation, and resell them at great profit to themselves with little or no concern for the quality of the pharmaceuticals," the investigators said in the report. House Energy and Commerce Chair Billy Tauzin (R-La.) said he would mark up a reimportation bill this month that addresses safety concerns. In July, the Senate passed legislation (S 812) that would allow drug reimportation from Canada and other countries, CongressDaily reports (Fulton, CongressDaily, 9/16).