Drug Lobby Wins Again in Washington...

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I understand that drug companies have to charge a lot for their drugs to recoup the costs of R&D, but why do U.S. drug companies deserve special protections? Why does Bush lobby for NAFTA, but against drug importation? What makes drug companies so damned special that they deserve to be protected? Free trade only in select sectors isn't free trade at all.

The biggest lobby in DC, lots of campaign contributions, and numerous Congressmen on their boards.

All they're doing is requiring imports to meet the same FDA requirements and certifications US drugs do.

I'd like to see a bill from the Canadian parliment lifting price restrictions that prevent Canadians from paying their fair share before the U.S. Congress passes what would essentially be a defacto price ceiling between both countries.

I agree, what about the free market for "smoking allowed" bars and restaurants in Illinois?

Or Congress could level the playing field by removing all the FDA certification requirements on US drugs!

So, what happens if I drive across a border for my estrogen supplements now?

Council Bluffs doesn't qualify as "across the border."

The hell it doesn't. It's like you cross a bridge into a 3rd world country.

You're going to have to do a lot more than flash your beef tits at the border guard to get back across.

You're free to trade cigarettes all you want in Illinois!

So why does the drug industry get this protection but trading in other industries doesn't require that the imports meet environmental and labor standards imposed on U.S. companies? Trading with China and Chinese imports, for instance.

Other imports do.

Cars imported, must meet US safety standards.
Food imported must be approved by various Federal agencies.

It's about safety for the public, not about the drug companies.

But I don't think that gives our government regulatory lackeys total discretion to throw up their hands and declare us unable to approve all foreign drugs. Assess the drugs individually. Tell us why they were not approved. Give the foreign manufacturers a chance to comply. That is, of course, if your purpose is quality control, rather than government-enforced price fixing.

If they go through all the testing required to meet certification, the price is going to match that of US drugs.

Often, it's not even foreign manufacturers, but US manufacturers. That's why the bigger fuss is over banning reimportation, not simple importation.

I don't see how, unless they are charged additionally in the 'States for the testing and certification, they couldn't get around that by simply basing themselves in a country where the entire manufacturing process is cheaper.

Unless they're allowed to sell lower-quality drugs to other countries, that leaves price fixing as the only motivation.

That's not true -- U.S. standards are required on imports.

However, it is misleading to claim that this is the same kind of protection, or the only way to ensure FDA level safety compliance. We routinely send agricultural inspectors to other countries, for example, same goes for meat and any number of other imported consumer goods with safety standards. Why pharmaceutical imports can't follow this model is hard to understand.

Odds are that any country where the manufacturing process is cheaper is going to have problems importing due to licensing(or rather, the lack of such) of formulas.

They can.

But the price goes up, negating the "value" of importing.

They're allowed to sell drugs at lower quality in other countries.

This could very well be true. Let's find out?

The importers say they can't do it.

This is BS.

American politicians who think that American citizens must not be "exposed" to the "risk" of drugs manufactured in such filthy third-world shitholes as Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan and New Zealand, and must use only superior AMERICAN drugs to treat their delicate American arses, are so far up their own rectums they've just about lapped themselves.

In Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand? I seriously doubt it.

Then there should be no problem for them to meet US standards.

It's a protection racket, pure and simple. No amount of government lapdog ass kissing will prove otherwise.

So then why is the government disqualifying itself from inspecting them as incompetent?

Meh. I go to Canada a few times a year. I'm getting good at smuggling headache pills with codine.