Minnesota To Launch Web Site To Help Residents Purchase Medications From Canada

Minnesota on Friday plans to launch a Web site to provide state residents with information to help them reimport lower-cost, U.S.-manufactured prescription drugs from Canada, the Boston Globe reports. The Web site will direct state residents to state-approved online Canadian pharmacies and list their phone numbers, Web addresses and directories of prescription drugs and prices negotiated by the state. However, the Web site will not include links to the online Canadian pharmacies. Minnesota officials have conducted site inspections of state-approved Canadian online pharmacies, and the Web site will only list prescription drugs that consumers take on a regular basis and those that "can withstand the rigors of shipping," the Globe reports. In addition, the Web site will not list controlled substances, such as prescription narcotics (Rowland, Boston Globe, 1/30). The Web site is the first phase of a state reimportation program. In the future, Minnesota hopes to begin to reimport prescription drugs for state employees and make bulk purchases of medications from Canada. According to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), reimportation of medications for state employees could save Minnesota tens of millions of dollars in prescription drug costs (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/16/03).

Reaction
Although as many as 24 state governments have considered reimportation programs "in some form or another," Minnesota is the "first state to take concrete action in defiance of the federal government," the Globe reports. Federal law prohibits generally reimportation, and the FDA has cited safety concerns about the practice (Boston Globe, 1/30). Pawlenty last month met with five FDA officials in Washington, D.C., to discuss the legal liability, potential penalties and the possible agency response to the state reimportation program. He also asked the FDA officials to allow Minnesota to establish the reimportation program as a pilot project to determine the safety of the practice (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/16/03). William Hubbard, associate commissioner of policy and planning for the FDA, said, "Minnesota has not put its Web site up yet. We have not seen it, and we do not know how its program will work," adding, "We would be concerned about any program that would subject citizens of any state to potentially dangerous drugs." However, Kevin Goodno, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, said that the Web site does not promote the sale of prescription drugs from Canada to state residents and as a result, should survive legal challenges by the FDA (Boston Globe, 1/30).