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>US. customers cut off from cheaper Cdn Internet drugs >look to Senate for aid > >MICHELLE MACAFEE >Canadian Press > > >Friday, April 30, 2004 >ADVERTISEMENT > > > >(CP) - Elinor Shoaf has felt the pain of the Internet >pharmacy industry's heightened struggle to stock the >cheap drugs she and a million other Americans have >come to depend on. > >Specifically, the 74-year-old from Wheeling, W.Va., >felt it in her elbows, back and knees - the effects of >not taking her arthritis medication for several weeks >while she awaited a refill from Canada that has yet to >arrive. > >"It wasn't severe, but I was getting new aches and >pains," Shoaf, a retired school teacher, said in an >interview. > >"I had just been biding my time hoping I would get it. >Every day I thought, well, it will come, until I >talked to them on the phone and they said they weren't >able to get it." > >On the advice of her doctor, Shoaf recently filled her >Celebrex prescription at her neighbourhood drugstore >for triple the price she had been paying at the >Winnipeg Internet pharmacy she has used for three >years. > >Hundreds of kilometres west in Petaluma, Calif., Doris >Murphy has relied on free samples of Celebrex from her >doctor since January as she waits for a prescription >from Canada. > >"This infuriates me," Murphy, a 74-year-old retired >sales manager, said in an interview from her mobile >home. > >"If you use it, you need it. It's not something you >get to make you look pretty." > >Earlier this month, a busload of seniors from >Minnesota left Winnipeg without being able to fill >their prescriptions for Lipitor, a >cholesterol-lowering drug they had been buying in >Canada with ease for years. > >Stories like these have brought representatives of the >Canadian International Pharmacy Association to >Washington this week to make their case for smoother >cross-border trade. > >The association met with five senators, including some >co-sponsors of a new bipartisan bill that would permit >drug imports from Canada. > >The group also went to the White House on Friday to >meet with policy advisers to President George W. Bush. > >The administration is facing growing election-year >discontent with rising drug prices in the United >States. However, opponents on both sides of the border >have continually argued that drug imports should >remain illegal because they are unsafe and could lead >to a rise in counterfeit drugs. > >The urgency of the current supply crisis facing the >Canadian online industry was a key message at the >meetings with senators, said pharmacy association >spokesman David MacKay. > >Internet pharmacies have been grappling with supply >shortages caused after three major drug manufacturers >blacklisted them at the wholesale level earlier this >year. The move has choked off the flow south of many >popular brand-name products sold to uninsured and >underinsured Americans at prices that are >substantially lower due to federal price regulations. > >There have been some layoffs in Manitoba, the >birthplace of the industry, with more expected. A few >companies are also reorganizing to direct customers on >a commission basis to pharmacies in countries with >similar regulatory standards, such as Britain. > >MacKay said his members like some aspects of the >Senate bill, such as a provision that would prevent >manufacturers from restricting supply. > >But the association also stressed the Canadian system >could not support the volume of sales the new bill >would allow by letting U.S. pharmacies and wholesalers >import. > >"We want to make sure it's practical, it's workable >and they have legislation that will not end up being >destructive either north or south of the border," >MacKay said in a telephone interview. > >Canadian opponents, such as the Coalition for Manitoba >Pharmacy and several patient rights groups, recently >told a U.S. Food and Drug Administration task force >that while stories about American patients going >without affordable drugs are compelling, they are not >Canada's problem. > >The groups urged the U.S. government to come up with a >domestic solution to unaffordable drug prices.

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