01 October 2004

Canadian drug imports hot topic in Senate race
John, Vitter both tout efforts to lower costs

WASHINGTON -- Louisiana is a long way from Canada, but the debate over whether to allow prescription drugs to be imported from north of the border has emerged as a hot issue in the race for the state's open U.S. Senate seat.

;That is especially surprising given that all four major candidates agree that Americans should be able to re-import U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canada, where brand-name medicines are much cheaper.

The battle, being played out in statewide TV ads five weeks before the Nov. 2 election, is over who is the real leader on the issue. With one poll showing 70 percent of Americans favoring re-importation, candidates in both parties have rallied to the cause.

In an ad that began airing last week, U.S. Rep. Chris John, D-Crowley, says, "I wrote legislation in Congress allowing re-importation of safe prescription drugs at lower costs from countries like Canada."

U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie, went up with a 30-second ad Tuesday in which he says, "I'm the only candidate in the race who has fought to allow you to import safe drugs from Canada at a much cheaper cost."

Neither ad mentions that the other two candidates in the race, state Treasurer John Kennedy and state Rep. Arthur Morrell, D-New Orleans, also favor re-importation.

John's ad also fails to note that he voted against a drug re-importation proposal when the House passed a bill in July 2003.

Safety concerns

He said he was concerned the bill would have opened the U.S. market to counterfeit drugs from all over the world. He wasn't alone in that concern. U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, called the bill "dangerous." The Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical Association opposed it. So did 53 senators who wrote a letter voicing their concerns.

Republican leaders didn't allow the re-importation bill to be amended, so members had the chance only to vote yes or no. Still, Vitter said that if John was so worried about the safety of imported drugs, he could have amended Medicare legislation that addressed re-importation that came before the committee on which John sits.

Vitter said John was influenced by contributions from U.S. drug manufacturers, who opposed the legislation for fear it would cut into their profits. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics said John's campaign has accepted $61,054 from drug companies and the industry's trade group in the past two years.

"On vote after vote, I've voted for re-importation and Chris John has voted against it," Vitter said. "He's voted no and taken tens of thousands of dollars of big drug company money."

 John denied that the drug industry contributions had anything to do with his vote, and he called Vitter's vote for the bill "reckless."

He said he didn't offer re-importation amendments to the Medicare bill because at the time he was unaware of the safety concerns.

"Frankly I didn't offer any amendment because the safety aspects weren't ironed out in the debate at that time," John said. "As the bill came out of committee and FDA raised some concerns, it evolved from there."

Questions of consistency

Vitter pointed out that John voted against a 2001 amendment that also would have allowed drug re-importation. However, a John spokesman said the provision had even weaker protections than the House bill two years later.

John said his concerns about safety led him to write his own bill, which he said undercuts Vitter's claim to being the only candidate fighting for change. John filed the bill in July, after he had announced he was running for Senate. The bill has no co-sponsors.

Despite the message in Vitter's ad, the Democratic Party says he has been inconsistent on drug re-importation. Party officials cite votes Vitter cast last year against sending a Medicare bill back to committee expressly to strengthen re-importation provisions. Consumer groups criticized the controversial Medicare bill, which created a private-sector drug benefit starting in 2006, partly because it did little to allow imports of cheap drugs.

Vitter voted for the Medicare bill, which President Bush signed into law in December. He said he did so, and opposed efforts to send it back to committee, because he and others had secured a promise from Republican House leaders that there would be a separate vote on a drug re-importation bill.

By Bill Walsh
Times-Picayune
Washington bureau

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