The report of the HHS Task Force on Drug Importation demonstrates that Congress cannot turn a blind eye to the safety concerns of opening U.S. borders to imported drugs.
The report says that it would be ?extraordinarily difficult? to ensure the safety of drugs imported by individual citizens, and allowing importation through commercial sources would require a substantial investment of new federal resources that would negate any savings.
It?s important to call drug importation by its real name, price controls. Rather than going through the endless risks and complexities of trying to import price controlled drugs from Canada and abroad, let?s lift the camouflage and have an honest debate in the United States about whether we should directly impose our own price controls on pharmaceuticals.
Grace-Marie Turner
President
Galen Institute