With prescription drug prices spiraling out of control, I feel compelled to do something to mitigate prescription drug expenses so that Mainers, whether they be elderly, poor, uninsured or on a fixed income won’t have to make life threatening decisions based on the affordability of their prescribed medication.

I am also a registered nurse. My specialty is emergency nursing. I am at the frontline of this dilemma. The reason that many come through the doors of my hospital to seek expensive emergency treatment is because they are unable to meet the financial obligations associated with high prescription drug prices. For many it is a tough economic decision of whether to provide food on the table, to keep the house warm during the cold Maine winter or pay the high cost of prescription drugs they so desperately need.

As state, county and municipal governments wrestle with ways to reduce health care costs, many are currently looking to our northern neighbor for cheaper pricing and bulk purchasing power to drive down the escalating costs of prescription drugs. Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and most recently Vermont, and just 2 weeks ago Washington state, have all enacted legislation that provides their citizens with cost saving options. The ability to purchase safe, U.S. manufactured, brand name, FDA approved, prescription drugs from Canada and in some cases Ireland and Great Britain.

These States and some large municipalities such as Portland, Maine; Springfield, Mass.; Burlington, Vt.; Boston, Mass.; Los Angeles, Calif.; San Francisco, Calif.; Westchester County, N.Y., and many others are now offering their residents, retirees, and municipal and state employees the opportunity to save substantial amounts of their hard earned money by purchasing brand name maintenance prescription medicines through safe Canadian on-line pharmacies. As of this date, I have not heard or read of one situation where someone was adversely impacted by receiving their medicine from a legitimate Canadian Pharmacy. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) a bipartisan research arm of Congress actually came out with a paper stating that Canadian Pharmacy standards and practices were much the same as ours and in some instances with higher safety standards and safer results.

To ensure safety and efficacy of drugs, some states have undertaken physical inspection of not only the pharmacies in Canada that distribute the drugs but also the manner in which they package, label, handle and store the drugs. They have also tested the physical and chemical properties of some of the drugs to ensure that the drugs are purported to be what they claim them to be. The last thing we or our neighbors in Canada would want is to provide our citizens with a prescription drug supply chain that is not safe.

I have lived in Maine all of my life with the exception of military service. I grew up in Calais, in Washington County. I lived the American as well as the Canadian experience in my youth. Living on the Canadian border was one of friendship and harmony, truly a unique experience. It was in many ways like there was no international border at all. We have always been trading partners. If you could buy sugar or meat cheaper “over there,” that’s where you went. I went to the orthodontist in Canada, because we didn’t have one on “our side.” We went to the movies in Canada because we didn’t have a movie theatre. Years ago, the only hospital near Calais was in Canada, so many children were born there. And yes, at times, the pharmacy in town was not open and we would go to Canada to get our prescription filled. Were Canadian prescription drugs unsafe then? No more unsafe than ours. My point being, we have traded with Canada for decades and despite the insistence of the FDA that U.S. manufactured, Brand name, FDA approved prescription drugs imported from us for the Canadian market are somehow not safe is to me unfounded. Do I feel that the Canadian government would allow its citizens, (many our relatives) to purchase unsafe prescription drugs? Of course not. They have regulatory controls in place such as we do, to protect their citizens.

To give you an example of the potential cost savings for individuals purchasing (90 day supplies) of prescription medicines from Canada, I went to an online Canadian Pharmacy, Canadameds.com and also to CVS as well as Walgreens. The break down in price of a few Brand name drugs is as follows:

Canadameds.com

Nolvadex 20mg tabs (90) $76.54 Savings $301.75

Walgreen

Nolvadex 20mg tabs (90) $378.29

Canadameds.com

Plavix 75mg tabs (84) $262.02 Savings $111.69

@3.12 pill

CVS

Plavix 75mg tabs (90) $392.49 @4.36pill

Canadameds.com

Zocor 20mg tabs (90) $281.40 Savings $139.59

CVS

Zocor 20mg tabs (90) $420.99

Canadameds.com

Zofran 4mg tabs (30) $545.30 Savings $ 180.94

@18.18pill

Walgreen

Zofran 4mg tabs (36) $871. 49 @24.21pill

Canadameds.com

Flonase 50mcg/dose $43.61 Savings $ 31.98

Walgreen

Flonase 50mcg/dose $75.59

As you can see, for someone who is taking multiple brand name medicine, there could be a significant annual cost savings to the individual.

I find it ironic that through the years the FDA has allowed the practice of individuals in this state filling their 90 day supply of maintenance prescription medicine through cross border shopping but now that States are looking for more meaningful ways to lower prescription drug prices in order to reduce health care costs for all, they are intervening, saying that the practice is not safe, the very practice that for years Mainers have been utilizing yet the FDA has been moot on.

Maine has and continues to be committed to and in the forefront of providing its citizens with cost saving measures to provide affordable health care and prescription drugs for all. My feeling is that the ability to offer our citizens with another option to augment those cost savings is a safe and practical thing to do. Although re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada is not a cure all, nor even a permanent solution to our problem of high pharmaceutical costs in this state and country, it is one more way that we can provide to our citizens the cost saving measures to help reduce their overall healthcare budgets.

State Rep. Tim Driscoll gave this testimony as a co-sponsor of LD 494, an “Act to Establish a Program for the Purchase of Prescription Drugs from out of the State and out of the Country for the Elderly and Disabled.”

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