The Senate rejected a plan Tuesday to allow Americans to import low-cost prescriptions from abroad, handing drug makers a victory that may help secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
The vote on the amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., was 51-48 in favor, but 60 votes were needed to prevail under a special rule. Obama had supported the measure as a senator, but his administration echoed safety concerns raised by the pharmaceutical industry — which is supporting the Democrats' health care bill.
An angry Dorgan denounced a competing amendment that would permit drug imports if the Food and Drug Administration certifies it can be done without risks.Lower costs? We can't do that! Canadians apparently die all the time from unsafe drugs, unlike here in America where the FDA has a sterling record of protecting us from bad products.
"Do not vote for this amendment and say you've done something about the price of prescription drugs because constituents will know better," Dorgan admonished his colleagues.
The alternative amendment by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., also failed on a 56-43 vote. The House bill is silent on the issue.
Dorgan's plan would have allowed American pharmacies and drug wholesalers to import federally approved drugs from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan — placing them within reach of average consumers.
Both the pharmaceutical industry and the Obama administration were lobbying against the proposal, saying it would not protect people from potentially dangerous or ineffective drugs. Dorgan's plan would have cost drug makers billions of dollars and had bipartisan support.
Best reason we can't have cheap drugs? They'll lead to prescription drug abuse...because not being able to afford illegal drugs and legal drugs like alcohol stop people from abusing them.
It's amazing. If companies have to take unsafe chemicals out of our products, cost trumps safety as an accepted risk and that's just the cost of business. If companies charge money for those chemicals as presciption drugs, why safety is the only thing that matters...cost be damned!
The awesome is so awesome, it's killing us.
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In the mean time we should separate the two mandates of the FDA, drugs and food are inherently very different now than they once were. The FDA is underfunded and undermanned to monitor all the various food producers and vendors.
Oh well, maybe when they do a worse job people will get upset enough to do something about it right?
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