Boston, New Hampshire to purchase Canadian drugs

BOSTON -- The city of Boston and the state of New Hampshire announced Tuesday they will begin buying prescription drugs from Canada, jumping to the forefront of the growing but illegal movement to take advantage of lower prices across the border.

New Hampshire would become the first state in the country to turn to Canada for drugs, and Boston would become the largest U.S. city.

Springfield, about 90 miles west of Boston, was the first U.S. city to begin importing Canadian drugs for city employees. Meanwhile, Burlington, Vt., plans to start importing prescription drugs for city employees starting March 1, Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle said Tuesday.

"It's illegal, but it's about time we forced the issue," said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a Democrat. "Why is the consumer the only one to pay full price for prescription drugs?"

The mayor said Boston will begin buying prescription drugs July 1 for city employees.

New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson said the state will begin buying medicines for prison inmates and Medicaid recipients.

"It's time we stood up as a state and did the right thing and allowed citizens to purchase drugs from the most affordable supplier," said Benson, a Republican.

The Boston and New Hampshire plans were announced a day after President Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug bill, which forbids reimportation of Canadian drugs unless the U.S. Health and Human Services Department certifies their safety. So far, the department has refused to do so.

The Food and Drug Administration reiterated its warnings Tuesday against any importation of drugs.and Drug Association said the safety of prescription drugs imported from Canada cannot be ensured.

"We haven't seen the Boston plan, but the mayor should know that under all legislation -- including the new Medicare bill -- it is both illegal and unsafe to import prescription drugs from Canada," said Peter Pitts, the FDA's associate commissioner for external affairs. "In fact, it is illegal because it is unsafe."

But Ross said if more cities and states take similar action to Boston and Springfield, the drug industry will be forced to review its pricing policies.

"The federal government should be ashamed of itself," Ross said. "They should be bending over backwards to help us ensure it's safe."

Boston's 15,000 employees and retirees have drug costs covered through outside health plans, which are the choice of most employees, or directly by the city. The second group, about 7,000 people who are mostly retirees, will have the option of buying from Canada.

The practice is illegal, although Congress has told the Department of Health and Human services to review whether drugs can be safely imported from Canada. The FDA continues to express doubts about the practice, however.

"The unknown concerns us -- where these things are being made, how they're being shipped, how they're being stored," said Tom McGinnis, the FDA's director of pharmacy affairs.

Wanda Moebius, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said Menino would do a greater service to employees by telling them about programs to aid patients who can't afford drugs.

"There are more responsible ways to help those people than to flout the law and flout safety and encourage people to get their prescription drugs from what purports to be Canada," she said.

But Albano praised Boston's decision.

"Not only is it good for Boston, but this will send shock waves around the country," he told The Boston Globe. "There's a little bit of a difference when a city like Springfield, Mass., does something and when Boston, Mass., does it."

In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is lobbying the federal government to let the state buy drugs at lower prices in Canada for its 230,000 state employees and retirees.