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Canada May Ban Drug Exports Into The US
from the political-hot-potato dept
Apparently, Canada is thinking about banning the sale of drugs into the US by mail order. The US administration has already been trying to stop the import of such drugs, for a variety of reasons (and some of them appear to depend on your political leanings) -- though plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle have been pushing to allow such cross border drug imports, as it's very popular with constituents. This new plan would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, for US prescriptions to be sent across the border, unless the patient travels over the border with the prescription. Even in that case, certain drugs won't be allowed to cross the border back into the US. Of course, from a political standpoint, this is one very hot potato. No one wants to be accused of making drugs more expensive, and some are suggesting that pressure from the US is pushing Canada to make these changes, so that it can't be pinned specifically on a US politician.
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Makes sense
From Canada's point of view, this makes sense. Everywhere else in the world gets essentially free pharmaceuticals, with development costs underwritten by sky-high prices in the US.
If the US can re-import drugs at the lower international price, then higher US prices can't be maintained, so global prices would tend to equalize. Canada doesn't want to lose their free drug ticket, so they have to move to maintain the status quo.
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Re: Makes sense
...begs the question:
How & why did the practice of sticking US citizens with R&D costs of pharmaceuticals originate?
In that great theoretical Adam Smith 'free market' world the costs should be evenly spread among all the customers due to competitive pressures.
Ditto for NAFTA, with the force of treaty in addition to the force of theory pushing for price levelling.
One could surmise that the people who really run this country (and I don't mean voters, congress, or the administration) really enjoy sticking their fat hog.
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