Senate HELP Committee Schedules Hearing on Sen. Dorgan's Reimportation Bill, USA

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 10 Apr 2005 - 21:00 PDT

.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on April 19 plans to hold a hearing on a bill (S 334) sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) that would allow U.S. residents to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from other nations, CongressDaily reports (Heil, CongressDaily, 4/7). The legislation is a revised version of a bill that Dorgan introduced last year. The original bill would have allowed U.S. residents to reimport as much as a 90-day supply of prescription drugs from FDA-approved Canadian pharmacies for personal use. After 90 days, the legislation would have allowed licensed pharmacists and prescription drug wholesalers to reimport medications from Canada. In addition, U.S. residents who travel to Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland or current E.U. nations could have returned with as much as a 90-day supply of prescription drugs for personal use. After one year, pharmacists and wholesalers could have reimported medications from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland or E.U. nations that were members as of Jan. 1, 2003. Pharmacists and wholesalers that reimport prescription drugs would have had to register with FDA, pay fees of as much as 1% of the price of the medications to fund the cost of additional federal inspectors and customs agents, and track and document the chain of custody of medications from manufacturer to consumer. In addition, the revised legislation would phase in FDA review of notices of the foreign versions of FDA-approved prescription drugs to determine whether they are the same or different than current medications approved for use (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/30).

Prior Agreement
The committee scheduled the hearing on the bill as part of an agreement with Dorgan reached earlier this year. Under the agreement, Dorgan promised not to block a confirmation vote on HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, provided that committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) scheduled a hearing on the legislation. Dorgan said that the hearing could address some concerns about the bill in the event that he decides to introduce the legislation as an amendment on the Senate floor. "The first objection to an amendment is that it hasn't had a hearing in committee," a Dorgan spokesperson said, adding, "But for this one, the answer would be, 'Yes, it has'" (CongressDaily, 4/7).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations