Last month, Maine enacted a law to make it easier for residents to buy prescription drugs from other countries. Under the new law, licensed retail pharmacies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom may export prescription medicines by mail to Maine residents for personal use. However, these pharmacies may not be safe for consumers.

From 2004-2012, the city of Portland ran a similar voluntary prescription drug program, called PortlandMeds, which was said to have saved the city and its employees a total of $3.2 million during its eight-year-run, before the state’s former attorney general, William Schneider, suspended it in August 2012 amid controversy surrounding the policy.

Pharmacy trade groups have concerns about this new law which is similar to PortlandMeds, but now includes the entire state. PhRMA and other groups, including the Maine Pharmacy Association and Maine Society of Health-System Pharmacists are suing the state to put a stop to the practice of importing drugs. Besides the loss of revenue and intellectual property issues, there are many other reasons why CSIP, our members, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urge consumers, pharmacists, doctors and others to be very cautious when purchasing prescription drugs imported from other countries. Failing to do so increases exposure to significant risks:

• Consumers, pharmacists, doctors and others who purchase imported pharmaceuticals may be exposed to drugs not produced to meet U.S. regulatory standards, not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and not labeled according to the FDA’s regulations.
• Foreign pharmacies are not subject to the same laws as those in the U.S., and under this law Maine customers face the possibility of receiving counterfeit, misbranded, expired or adulterated drugs.
• Foreign pharmacies and brokers are also not required to identify the prescribing practitioner, to maintain records of each patient’s health and drug history, or to check for drug interactions.
• Some brand medications produced in other countries and sold domestically will damage the reputation and brands of U.S. manufacturers if patients receive counterfeit or expired drugs.

We believe that if Maine continues to import drugs from other countries, they need to ensure that a good track and trace system is in place, because today’s counterfeiters produce fake medicines that even drug manufacturers find difficult to identify outside of laboratory tests.

The court review of this law may have significant repercussions. If the state is successful in its efforts to uphold the law, other states are likely to follow its lead by allowing mail-order importation of pharmaceuticals. Although the trial date has not yet been set, we at CSIP, and our members, will continue to pay close attention to this important case as we do our part to educate consumers, pharmacists, and lawmakers about the potentially life-threatening problems associated with counterfeit medications purchased through rogue online pharmacies, many of which are located outside the United States.

####

The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 13 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.