Pharmaceutical Industry Disclosure Practices

Group rallies against drug plan Senator claims group
is front for pharmaceutical companies
by Tom Rafferty, Bismarck Tribune (May 6, 2005)

A nonprofit organization with ties to drug companies rallied against a plan to increase prescription drug importation on Thursday, saying a recent poll shows North Dakotans are against it.

However, a spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the organization is a front group for pharmaceutical companies.

The Seniors Coalition held a press conference at the Senior Health Center in Bismarck, where former Republican Gov. Ed Schafer and a former Federal Drug Administration official spoke against legislation introduced by Dorgan that would increase drug importation.

Schafer said importing drugs from other countries could be harmful to patients because there is no guarantee the drugs will be safe or authentic.

Schafer said American drugs are safe because the FDA and local pharmacies are part of the regulatory process that provides trust in the system.

"We can't short-circuit that trust," Shafer said.
Barry Piatt, communications director for Dorgan, said Dorgan's legislation provides for safe, regulated importation of prescription drugs.

Dorgan's plan allows importation of only drugs that are manufactured in FDA-approved plants from countries that have regulations similar to the United States.

Piatt said the Seniors Coalition is a group funded by drug companies.

"They are funded by the drug manufacturers, who have the highest profits on Wall-Street," Piatt said.

Mac Haddow, chairman of the policy advisory council for Seniors Coalition, said the organization receives some money from drug companies, but it comes in the form of grants for educational programs.

"We are not the lapdogs of the pharmaceutical companies and we are not their favorite sons," Haddow said.

Haddow said 90 percent of their funding comes from the four million individual members.

Importation of drugs has been a major issue because some of the same drugs that can be purchased in Canada and other countries are much cheaper than in the U.S.

Schafer said drugs are cheaper in Canada because the government there forces price controls on drug companies.

Piatt said drugs are cheaper in Canada because the Canadian government negotiates a price -- not because the prices are set by the government.
Piatt said claims that Dorgan's plan is not safe are "utter nonsense," because one-fourth of the prescription drugs Americans now take are made overseas.

Peter Pitts, a former FDA official now working for Partnership for Safe Medicine, the company that conducted a poll of 500 North Dakotans, also opposed Dorgan's plan.

The poll Pitts touted showed that 71 percent of North Dakotans favor limited imports of Canadian drugs and that a majority also oppose drug imports from other countries.

There were few seniors at the press conference, but a few spoke up about the issue.

Stanley Skarphol, of Bismarck, said he buys all his prescription drugs at local pharmacies because he doesn't want to risk his health after having had a heart transplant years ago.
"I can't afford to take a chance," Skarphol said.
One senior told Schafer she has had no problems with drugs she has purchased from Canada and Mexico.
"They were much cheaper, too," she said.

Pharmaceutical Industry Disclosure Practices