June 8, 2004
NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS, EH?
Canada trip to buy drugs is called off; Pfizer blamed (Ray Hackett, 6/08/04, Norwich Bulletin)
The president of the Connecticut Council of Senior Citizens asked U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons Monday to use his "substantial influence" with Pfizer Inc. to stop the company from threatening Canadian pharmacies that sell prescription drugs to Americans.Charlene Block said that a senior bus trip to Montreal next week to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs had to be canceled because of Pfizer's recent actions against Canadian pharmacies and distributors, including the suspension of two distribution licenses.
"In the beginning, it didn't make sense that we had to go to Canada," Block said during a news conference outside the Norwich office of the 2nd Congressional District Republican, "and now Pfizer has shut down that avenue."
Block released copies of a Pfizer company memo dated last January advising pharmacies and distributors of a revised policy strictly limiting the sale of Pfizer products to Canadian customers only. A second memo, dated Feb. 26, reiterated the policy and noted that two distributors were no longer licensed to distribute Pfizer products because of their failure to comply.
Driving up drug prices for the dying populations of Canada and Europe will do more to ruin our relations with them than any war.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 8, 2004 9:40 PM
If we let their drugs be imported here, that will drive up their prices -- the drug companies will not give them discounts that lower U.S. prices.
Posted by: pj at June 8, 2004 10:00 PMI see no reason to protect the Canadian health care system. I say let the greedy geezers go to Canada and clean the shelves of the pharmacies. If it ruins the deal the Canucks have been getting too bad.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 8, 2004 10:15 PMStand and deliver, Pfizer.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 8, 2004 10:22 PMOne of the contradictions that globalization is bringing out is how protectionist policies and subsidization distorts the market. When transportation was slow and expensive,you could get away with widely different prices in various juridictions. But now days its far to easy to find and exploit such interferences in the market.
The obvious solution, from the Northern Mexican point of view, is for the US to impose similar "health care" policies, thereby eliminating the diferences between the two countries.. One of the reasons "why they hate us" in countries like Canada and Europe is that we won't sign on to such protectionist cartels, and are forcing them to make choices they'd rather not face. (Which is why the best possible outcome for this months election is a minority Liberal gov't with the NDP making sure they can't move right. )
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at June 9, 2004 12:01 AM"Driving up drug prices for the dying populations of Canada and Europe will do more to ruin our relations with them ...."
And this is a problem because????
Posted by: fred at June 9, 2004 3:05 PMfred:
It's excellent. We get cheap drugs and they die off faster.
Posted by: oj at June 9, 2004 3:18 PMThere seems no good reason for prices of drugs, which are pretty fungible, to vary by orders of magnitude.
There does seem very good reason to deplore lowering the prices received below US levels. Unless, that is, you're sure you'll never get sick.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 9, 2004 3:19 PM