26 June 2004
Springfield officials: Canadian drug plan saved city $3m
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Local officials say a nationally disputed plan to buy Canadian prescription drugs has saved the city $3 million in one year, but less than the original estimate of $7 million to $9 million.
Springfield expects savings to double next year to $6 million - almost a third of the nearly bankrupt city's $19 million annual drug budget - by increasing the program's enrollees, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.
Since the program began in July, the Canadian pharmacy provider for Springfield has mailed prescriptions to 3,200 employees, retirees and family members out of 10,000 people who would be eligible for the program.
Boston's Mayor Thomas M. Menino plans to launch a similar program next month.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that the drugs could be unsafe, but retired public schools administrator, John Sullivan, 77, calls it "hogwash."
Sullivan has been taking Lipitor and three other drugs since last fall in the Springfield program.
Participants like Sullivan save because Springfield can waive enrollee co-payments since the Canadian government keeps drug costs down.
"It's as safe or safe than mail-order in the United States," said Christopher Collins, the city's insurance manager. "There's no reason that I can find that American citizens are being forced to bear the most expensive costs of medications in the world."
Collins said figures fell short because the city boosted the co-payment of its traditional plan as incentive for people to use the Canadian plan with no co-payment, but the switch went into effect three months after the program was launched. Collins also said many employees did not understand the plan's benefits.
Next month, the U.S. Senate is expected to debate bills to legalize less expensive medications from Canada and other Western countries.
The U.S. House approved a foreign-drug imports bill last year.
Springfield's model has been adopted by Pittsfield, Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine. Portland uses the same Canadian company, CanaRx Services Inc., that Springfield uses. CanaRx is based in Windsor, Ontario.
Several states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire, have established Web sites for citizens to link to Canadian Internet pharmacies if they lack prescription coverage.
The FDA has warned Springfield and CanaRx about their importation program, but the agency is waiting for the outcome of legal proceedings against other Canadian drug suppliers that are importing to the United States before it takes legal action to halt the program, said Thomas McGinnis, the FDA's director of pharmacy affairs.
The agency is also awaiting a clear policy signal from U.S. lawmakers.
The FDA warns that foreign imports have no guarantee of safety.
McGinnis claimed Canadian pharmacies were not getting supplies from legitimate sources and said the conditions made it ideal for "counterfeiters to get into their distribution system."
Canadian pharmacies have aggressively competed for U.S. clients, including Menino, who is in final negotiations with an undisclosed bidder. The Boston mayor is likely to make an announcement during the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
Associated Press
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