Canadian Prescription Service Issues Response to Pfizer's Move to Limit U.S. Seniors' Access to Affordable Canadian Drugs

(Courtesy of our friends at www.prnewswire.com).

We provide this free financial resource to visitors of the Community Room of SeniorSSuperStoreS in an effort to keep baby boomers, seniors and the elderly informed of matters that can affect their lifestyle.

In response to Pfizer's Wednesday, August 6, 2003, announcement that the company will not sell its medications to Canadian pharmacies that sell to needy American seniors, the American Drug Club, a Canadian prescription service firm with stores across the United States giving consumers access to affordable Canadian drugs, provides this statement, dated August 8, 2003, from its president Daren Jorgenson, a licensed Canadian pharmacist:

"Pfizer has now joined Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline and Astrazeneca in their campaign to shut down Canadian pharmacies dispensing medications to uninsured and underinsured Americans. These actions seriously jeopardize the safety valve that many Americans are using to purchase life-saving drugs that they require.

There have been billions of U.S. dollars worth of Canadian prescriptions coming into the United States from Canada during the past four years without any major negative health incidents.
Has anyone died? No.
Has there been evidence of counterfeit drugs entering the U.S. from Canada? No.
Have research funds dried up? No.

Quite to the contrary, Pfizer and the FDA have acknowledged that the American pharmaceutical wholesale system was distributing counterfeit Lipitor that ended up in U.S. pharmacies and was eventually taken by American patients. There is no counterfeit Lipitor on Canadian pharmacy shelves.

Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Astrazeneca are not genuinely worried that their Canadian products are below the safety standards set in the U.S. They choose that excuse as a handy smokescreen to shield consumers from the real impetus -- their concern about the safety of their profit margins and share prices. The industry uses scare tactics and deception to manipulate the political system and the American public. After all, if they are seriously worried about safety issues, then what do they say to the 78-year-old Cleveland senior who has taken Pfizer's Lipitor cholesterol drug from Canada and now must go without her medication? That is a real safety issue!

Pfizer, Glaxo and the other pharmaceutical manufacturers sell 51% of all their drugs in one market: North America, according to IMS Health, and nearly all of those drugs are sold in the United States. The American public, insurance industry and politicians should not be putting up with this. Are the Germans, British and Canadians that much poorer than the Americans? It is a complete embarrassment that that U.S., as the richest nation in the world, is letting many of its citizens die because they cannot afford their medications. It is sad enough that Americans have to look to Canada to buy Pfizer products that were manufactured in their own country because they cannot afford the American prices. Yet, it is sadder that with Pfizer's action, Americans will no longer be able to buy Canadian drugs, and that may result in tragic health consequences for them.

It is time for America's seniors to rise up, take charge and form a grassroots movement to demand affordable medication prices.

As a renowned advocate of free trade, America has long fostered an open-market system. But, the pharmaceutical industry is attempting to close that market and continue the monopoly drug pricing that they have coveted for decades.

The European Union fought back and opened up its market and, as a result, drug prices were driven down. There, it has not resulted in research and development money drying up, nor resulted in drug shortages or safety concerns. Instead, there is safe parallel-importation with Europeans able to access lower drug prices from the market of their choice. Surely, the U.S. can follow Europe's lead and adopt a comparable open-market system."

For further information about this issue of American drug companies trying to stop the flow of inventory to Canadian pharmacies who sell those same medications to American seniors at prices significantly lower than the American seniors can buy here in the U.S., you can access the American Drug Club's website at www.americandrugclub.com.