Posted on Tue, Mar. 11, 2003
Canadian drug link probed

BY JOHN DORSCHNER
The Miami Herald
jdorschner@herald.com

A Congressional investigative subcommittee meeting in Aventura groped on Monday for a response when officials testified that Canadian Internet drug companies and Broward storefronts violate the law by offering discounted Canadian drugs to desperate South Florida seniors.

The state is investigating the storefronts, one official said, and may close them down.

But federal officials have been hesitant to move against the websites because they offer seniors savings of up to 50 percent on drugs.

''The scope of this is enormous,'' said U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Pembroke Pines. ``There may be millions using Canada for their drugs.

''Deutsch said this illegal activity benefiting ordinary Americans while authorities look the other way is ``the 800-pound elephant inside the tent.''

''If the president tried to stop the Canadian connection, he'd have people rocking his limo,'' Deutsch said after the four-hour hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Deutsch and two fellow Congressmen heard two representatives of Florida pharmacies say that the Canadian connection had to be closed down because it was hurting their business.

Michael Jackson, executive vice president of the Florida Pharmacy Association, said many pharmacies are complaining. ''For some strange reason, their business has flattened out.'' The pharmacies suspect competition in Canada, where the government controls prices.

BUSINESS SURGE
While the Internet connection has been fairly well publicized, the subcommittee spent much of its time hearing about the recent surge in storefronts offering Canadian drugs.

Deutsch displayed an enlarged version of an ad for Discount Drugs of Canada that appeared in The Broward Jewish Journal. The ad listed stores in Tamarac, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach.

''Ads like this facilitate illegal conduct,'' said John M. Taylor, the Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.

The Discount Drugs chain, based in Delray Beach, will have about 40 stores open in the next two weeks and is planning about 40 more, said co-owner Earle Turow. They're aimed at seniors who prefer face-to-face contacts, rather than the Internet, when they're ordering prescriptions.

Turow said the storefronts take patient information and fax the prescriptions to Canada, where pharmacies charge the customers and ship the drugs directly to them. He gets his commissions from the pharmacies, not the U.S. customers.

''We don't sell anything,'' Turow said after he was told about the subcommittee hearing. ``We don't charge anything. We don't take any deliveries on drugs. All we do is help them fill out the forms. Why that can be illegal, that's anybody's guess. You would certainly have some really angry seniors if they tried to shut us down.''

John M. Taylor, of the FDA, and John D. Taylor, former executive director of the Florida Board of Pharmacy, told the subcommittee that the storefronts were breaking the law because they helped facilitate the importation of prescription drugs that are unregulated by U.S. authorities.

SENIORS CLEARED
Both men made clear that no one was accusing the seniors of illegal activity. FDA sources have said in the past they ``don't want to be accused of arresting Grandma.''

The FDA's Taylor said federal regulators had no way of guaranteeing the quality of the foreign drugs, and they could be counterfeit, impure or past their expiration date. ''We would like to stem this tide,'' he said.

Deutsch, who represents many Broward areas where seniors are choosing the Canadian connection, said he is ''willing to think outside the box'' about dealing with Canadian pharmacies.''

Maybe this is a good thing,'' he said. ``Maybe the system is working.''

He suggested policymakers should distinguish between Canadian pharmacies, which are highly regulated by their own government, and drugs imported from Asia and other places where counterfeiting is widespread.

One possibility, Deutsch said, would be to send FDA inspectors to Canada to make sure the drugs being sent to U.S. citizens met U.S. standards.

Almost two years ago, the FDA proposed a rule to clamp down on the Canadian connection but the FDA's Taylor said it had not yet been authorized by Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Subcommittee Chairman Jim Greenwood, R-Pennsylvania, warned that if two years went by without something being done, ``you can expect this committee to dance on the FDA's head.''

Florida's Taylor said the state had received no complaints about the storefronts offering Canadian drugs from consumers, but had gotten complaints from pharmacies and was ''aggressively pursuing'' investigations of the storefronts.

Email your questions and comments to rpittman@hqe.ihs.gov.
Send comments, corrections and questions about the webpage to cliff.wiggins@mail.ihs.gov