The Senior Federation’s supported bills allow for:

•  Importation of prescription drugs by U.S. pharmacies, wholesalers, and individuals from over twenty countries and
• Sgnificantly increases the safety of this country’s prescription drug supply. 

The House legislation has over 100 co-sponsors and the Senate bill has been heard in Committee and is now poised to acted upon by the full Senate.

• House Legislation

Minnesota’s’ First District Congressmen Gil Gutknecht introduced his Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2005 (H.R. 328 and S 109). The bill allows American consumers, pharmacists and wholesalers access to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved prescription drugs from FDA-approved facilities in 25 industrialized countries. In addition to Gutknecht, the House measure’s key sponsors include Rohm Emanuel (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT).  Minnesota co-sponsors include Minnesota Representative Jim Ramstad (R-3rd District), Martin Sabo (D-MN 5^th District), Betty McCollum (D-MN 4^th District), James Oberstar (D-MN- 8^th District) and Collin Peterson (D-MN 6^th District). At the moment Representative Mark Kennedy and John Kline both refuse to support the legislation.  

 "For too long, American consumers have been held captive in a market that forces them to pay significantly more for the same prescription drugs as our friends in Canada and Europe," Gutknecht said. "By opening markets, American consumers will save billions of dollars. I'm pleased to join members of the both the House and Senate to push for a vote on these important measures."

 In addition to opening pharmaceutical markets, this bill makes the importation of prescription drugs safer for American consumers. The language requires counterfeit proof packaging and chain of custody protection for any imported prescription drugs marketed in the United States. Gutknecht has tri-partisan support in the House for this measure.

• Senate Legislation

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced their bipartisan drug importation bill, the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act (S.334 and H.R. 700). It includes thirty two co-sponsors including long time supporters Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN), John McCain (R-AZ), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Trent Lott (R-TN), John Kerry (D-MA),  Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Ken Salazar (D-CO).

The Senate Bill will address the unfair price inequity for prescription drugs that currently exists in the world today.  American consumers are currently charged 55 percent more, on average, for the same brand-name medicines sold in other major developed countries for a fraction of the price.  The Dorgan-Snowe bill would allow American consumers to benefit from international price competition for prescription medicine in two ways:

1)      The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies and drug wholesalers to import FDA-approved medications from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and pass along the savings to their American customers.  This approach would allow Americans to benefit from lower prices on their prescription drugs while still enabling them to use their local pharmacy.

2)      The bill would allow individual consumers to import prescription drugs for their own personal use.  More specifically, consumers would be able to purchase their medicines directly from safe, reliable, FDA-inspected Canadian pharmacies via mail-order or the Internet.

The Senate Dorgan-Snowe bill includes a range of safety features intended to guarantee that only safe, effective FDA-approved prescription drugs are imported:

• Requires pharmacies and drug wholesalers to register with the FDA and be subject to frequent, random inspections.
• Allows only the importation of FDA-approved medicines with a “chain of custody” that can be traced all the way back to an FDA-inspected manufacturing plant.
• Allows for the use of anti-counterfeiting technology to identify safe, legal imported medicines.
• Gives the FDA the resources and authority it needs to ensure the safety of imported drugs and to stop those imports that are unsafe.

The Senate bipartisan bill also includes a number of provisions intended to ensure that the drug industry cannot thwart the law and prevent consumers from reaping the benefits of drug importation: including a anti-discrimination provision that would make it an unfair and discriminatory act for drug manufacturers to get around the law by shutting down the supply of prescription drugs they make available to pharmacists and wholesalers, as they are currently doing in Canada.

The Dorgan-Snowe legislation had its first hearing before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee in April 2005. David Kessler, former FDA Commission, spoke for its passage not only as a way to lower the cost of prescription drugs but as a way to improve the safety of the prescription drug supply in the U.S.

A similar bill to the Dorgan-Snow legislation is - S. 109 - Sponsored by: Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana). Co-sponsors include Senators. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Ken Salazar (D-Colorado). As orginally introduced it was the companion bill of the Gutckneht House legislation (H. 328).