02 December 2004

American group to Canadians: Bush Brings Big Pharma's agenda on visit

VANCOUVER In anticipation of President George Bush's visit to Canada, a public interest group offered their gratitude to Canadians for assisting the elderly and poor in America with obtaining affordable prescription drugs along with words of caution regarding their own President's agenda.

 "I know that those Americans who cannot afford the exorbitant prices of prescription drugs in the United States, would want to thank the Canadian pharmacies that mail us affordable drugs and the Canadian people for supporting them," said Michael Burgess, Executive Director of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, an organization based in Albany New York that has been referring older New Yorkers to Canadian pharmacies. "Clearly, our own government is under the control of the multinational drug companies and is allowing them to gouge the elderly and the poor. Thankfully, Canadians have been the first people to help us. We are proud to have Canada as our neighbor," he added.

Canadian drug prices are controlled by the government, unlike those in the U.S., where drug companies can make larger profits by charging prices that many patients, especially the elderly, cannot afford. Mr. Burgess advised, "I fear that President George Bush is bringing the agenda of the multinational pharmaceutical giants with him to Canada and he may try to push their desire to shut down the Canadian pharmacies that help the uninsured in America. We hope that he won't try to do that because in the presidential campaign, he told older Americans that if he was convinced of the safety of re-importation, he would support it."

Both Canadians and Americans should be concerned because, "If George Bush makes your Prime Minister shut down the Canadian pharmacies, lots of Canadians will be out of work and thousands of Americans won't have access to their medications - lots of needy people will suffer but Big Pharma won't. If these pharmacies were to be shut down though, the calls for Canadian pricing levels in the United States by consumer groups will dramatically increase," he added.

Indeed, in the face of saber rattling from the multinational drug companies, Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh appears to bowing. During a recent speech at Harvard University he postulated, "If the consequence is that cross-border internet pharmacies don't exist anymore, then that's the consequence."

Five days later, a bill (Bill C-282), introduced by Liberal Member of Parliament Wajid Khan (Mississauga-Streetsville) and apparently intended to restrict severely or eliminate the cross-border pharmaceutical trade, received its first reading in the House of Commons.

The Canadian international pharmacy industry employs an estimated 3000 Canadians directly and a much larger number of Canadians indirectly in supporting industries such as Canadian generic drug makers, pharmaceutical wholesalers, website development companies and computer programming firms. These jobs are threatened by Bill C-282. Canada Post will also lose very significant revenues given that the national postal agency currently delivers more than two and a half million pharmaceutical packages a year to the United States.

For further information contact: Ankur Arora, Spokesperson, International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia at 604- 866-0832. Michael Burgess, Executive Director, New York State Alliance for Retired Americans at 518- 436-1006.

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