Canadian pharmacies still best option despite efforts
of pharmaceutical companies to give different impression says Congress of California spokesperson

SACRAMENTO, July 11, 2005—Gary Passmore, spokesman for the Congress of California Seniors, the state’s leading senior advocacy group says that a recent story suggesting that prescription drugs from licensed, registered Canadian pharmacies have diminished as an option to reduce drug prices for Californians and others in the U.S., reflects a lack of understanding of the changing dynamics of the issue.

“Even with two ballot initiatives now before Californians on November 8,  the fact remains that access to safe, high-quality, low-cost prescription drugs from outside the U.S.—including licensed, registered Canadian pharmacies—is still among the best options for seniors and other underinsured Californians, “ Passmore says.

He notes the big international drug companies were instrumental in lobbying the Governor to veto two bills authorizing immediate access to lower-cost drugs from Canada. Governor Schwarzenegger is a major recipient of drug company donations.

Now, in the past month, drug companies have contributed about $40 million to pass an industry-sponsored voluntary drug discount plan and to defeat a ballot measure backed by seniors and consumer groups. Last week, Merck & Co. Inc. and Pfizer Inc. each donated $8.5 million to the industry's ballot measure campaign.

"The drug makers want us to believe they will voluntarily lower prices...which they have refused to do in the past. They are spending a fortune to defeat a proposal to require discounts for seniors and working families with no insurance. And they have pledged to spend 'whatever it takes' to block real cost savings,” Passmore noted. 

“The fact is that millions of Americans, including Californians, have already voted  with their feet by turning to registered, licensed pharmacies from Canada as the source for safety, lower prices and professional health care services,” Passmore continued.

“Some of these pharmacies have set a high standard for mail order and Internet-based pharmacies. Out of one side of their mouths the drug companies criticize these high quality operations and out of the other side, they are now attempting to emulate them.  Typically, they are relying not upon legitimate competition, the real solution to lower drug prices in this country, but on huge campaign contributions and attempts to prescription drugs from Canada and other safe sources outside the U.S. appear irrelevant.”

Passmore notes that the Congress of California Seniors, with its hundreds of thousands of members in California, is launching an expanded and innovative website jointly with a leading Canadian mail order pharmacy to extend the benefits of lower-cost, safe prescription drugs to an even larger audience.

He continues that in so doing, the important role of such pharmacies over the past five years will become increasingly evident to a growing number of seniors, the un- and the under-insured.