The Flawed Case Against Canadian Drugs, Brought to You by Big Pharma

The pharmaceutical industry has overseen the gutting of the FDA's regulatory capabilities for two decades, says Cary Byrd of eDrugSearch.com. Now, Big Pharma has the gall to argue that it opposes Canadian drug imports because the FDA doesn't have sufficient resources to regulate them.

San Antonio, TX (PRWEB) July 28, 2008 -- Cary Byrd, founder and president of eDrugSearch.com, the popular prescription drug shopping site and social network, today released the following statement addressing the pharmaceutical industry's ongoing campaign against Canadian drug reimportation:

Now that John McCain, Barack Obama and 80 percent of Americans favor giving U.S. consumers the right to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, you might think that Big Pharma would give up the battle. You might think the pharmaceutical giants would finally consent to competing fairly in our global economy, as virtually every other industry must.

You'd be wrong.

As it turns out, Big Pharma believes it has a trump card in its bid to maintain its inflated drug profits by keeping out international competition. That trump card: the incompetence of the FDA.

That's right. The argument is outlined in a recent op-ed piece by Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a Big Pharma mouthpiece. Writes Pitts:

"Several lawmakers have proposed allowing Americans to buy drugs from abroad ... All of the plans to lift the ban, including ones by Barack Obama and John McCain, stipulate that only 'safe' drugs will be permitted into the country.

"It would be up to the FDA to make sure all imported drugs are safe and effective. As the salmonella case illustrates all too clearly, such a promise would be almost impossible to keep."

Isn't that beautiful? Big Pharma, which has advocated and overseen the gutting of the FDA's regulatory capabilities over the past two decades, now says, "Sorry, but the FDA just doesn't have the regulatory capabilities to monitor drug imports."

That's chutzpah. It's akin to a child murdering his parents, then begging the court for mercy because he is an orphan.

Then again, it's not a lot different from what eDrugSearch.com faced when we appeared on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet last month. One of the other folks on stage was representing the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). The NABP was touting its own anti-import research -- also funded by Big Pharma.

Of course, the ultimate irony of saying that imports aren't safe -- and that the FDA is incompetent to regulate them -- is that many good ol' American drugs sold at good ol' American pharmacies are manufactured in China.

We live in a largely deregulated global economy today -- and this is the case whether you order your medications from U.S. or Canadian pharmacies. In most if not all cases, the drugs you receive from a properly licensed Canadian pharmacy are identical to those you would receive from a U.S. pharmacy.

So, yes, the FDA needs an overhaul as a regulatory body -- that's been made evident time and again in recent years. That means we need to do two things:

1. Extract the corrupting tentacles of Big Pharma from the FDA;

2. Dramatically increase funding to the FDA to ensure the organization has the resources to keep the public safe.

Sadly, the pharmaceutical giants -- their protestations that they're concerned for your safety to the contrary -- want neither of these things to happen.

If it were up to them, the FDA would go away all together. Then you'd have to trust Big Pharma to "keep you safe" -- and keep paying them protection money for the privilege.

About eDrugSearch.com:

Based in San Antonio, eDrugSearch.com is the Health 2.0 social network and comparison shopping site for U.S. consumers seeking prescription medications from prescreened Canadian and other international pharmacies. eDrugSearch.com's social network empowers members to rate and review pharmacies, share experiences with other members, and more. eDrugSearch.com president and founder Cary Byrd is an impassioned advocate for reform of U.S. prescription-drug law. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.eDrugSearch.com or its blog at www.edrugsearch.com/edsblog.

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