Risk of
Canadian drugs is doubted,
FDA can't name anyone injured or killed by Canadian drugs
WASHINGTON - Although they've been warning Americans about the dangers
of prescription drugs from Canada for nearly a year, U.S. Food and Drug
Administration officials can't name a single American who's been injured
or killed by drugs bought from licensed Canadian pharmacies.
"We don't have that," said Tom McGinnis, the FDA's director of
pharmacy affairs. "I can't think of one thing off the top of my
head where somebody died or somebody got put in the hospital because of
these medications. I just don't know if there's anything like
that."
Neither does Canada.
Health Canada, which regulates Canada's prescription industry,
"does not have any information that would indicate that any
Americans have become ill or have died as a result of taking
prescription medications purchased from Canada," said Jirina Vlk, a
spokeswoman for Health Canada.
That doesn't mean there are no such cases, nor does it mean that all
drugs from Canada are safe. But the absence of documented harm strongly
suggests that medications obtained from licensed Canadian pharmacies are
safe and raises questions about whether the FDA may be overstating the
risk of buying less expensive Canadian drugs.
The information comes out as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich pushes an
Illinois special advocate to draft a plan for buying less expensive
medicines in Canada for as many as 240,000 state employees and retirees.
FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, in a speech last week in Canada before
a group of drug information experts, said the agency had found
"thousands of examples of unapproved and potentially unsafe
medicines" coming into the United States from "many countries,
including from Canada."
In a subsequent news conference in Ottawa, McClellan went further,
saying there were "lots of examples of unsafe drugs coming into the
United States from Canada."
A recent report by the Congressional Research Service supports the
safety of drugs from Canada. It found that medications manufactured and
distributed in Canada meet or surpass quality control guidelines set by
the FDA. The service is the Library of Congress source that Congress
turns to for objective information.
Concern that the FDA may be misleading consumers has hurt its
credibility among some Capitol Hill lawmakers, who say the agency is
doing the bidding of the powerful drug industry.
"There's no question in my mind that the (FDA) is too dependent on
the pharmaceutical industry for their attitudes and
decision-making," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who chairs a House
subcommittee that's studied the Canadian drug issue.
"I had four hearings and I asked (FDA Associate Commissioner
William Hubbard) to give me examples where people have been damaged by
Canadian pharmaceuticals and reimportation, and he couldn't even give me
one, not one."
In response to Burton, Hubbard cited examples of people who got the
wrong drugs from Canadian pharmacies. While that's a danger, U.S.
pharmacists make similar errors. Hubbard also told Burton that the FDA
thinks many people don't report adverse incidents that result from
Canadian drugs.
That's because they fear being prosecuted for violating federal laws
against foreign drug imports, said Carmen Catizone, the executive
director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. The Park
Ridge, Ill., group represents state boards appointed by U.S. and
Canadian governors.
In testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, Catizone said
injuries from bad drugs might not surface for years, and then might not
be linked to Canadian drugs.
The FDA's McGinnis said agency warnings about bad drugs from Canada were
valid and reflected the "buyer beware" caution that's
justified when people buy drugs through the Internet. "A lot of
Internet pharmacies that claim to be Canadian aren't even based in
Canada," McGinnis said.
With U.S. spending on Canadian drugs expected to hit $1.4 billion this
year, the FDA has warned consumers against counterfeit, tainted or
mislabeled drugs from Canada. This reflects the fact that neither
government takes responsibility for the safety of cross-border drug
purchases.
"Looks can be deceiving," one FDA announcement read. "The
medicine you buy across the borders may be unsafe or ineffective. Don't
risk your health."
But in only two publicized cases have U.S. buyers been injured after
taking Canadian drugs. In each case, the drugs weren't the problem. The
problem was that the Canadian pharmacist made a mistake in filling the
prescription.
Studies indicate that such errors occur in about 3 percent of the 3
billion-plus retail prescriptions filled annually in the United States,
said Mike Cohen, a pharmacist and president of the Huntingdon, Pa.-based
Institute of Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit group that's working
to reduce medical errors.
In one case, according to Catizone's Senate testimony, an Illinois woman
who ordered an asthma inhaler for her child got the wrong drug.
Contacted later, Catizone said he could provide no further details of
the case.
In the second case, a Canadian pharmacy mistakenly sent Jan Baross of
Portland, Ore., hypertension medication instead of the breast cancer
drug Tamoxifen. Baross bought her drugs through Medicine Shoppe Canada,
a storefront in Alberta that forwarded her prescription to the Canadian
pharmacy that filled the order.
The incorrect medication caused coughing spells so violent that Baross
dislocated a rib, according to her attorney, R. Dale Dixon. In
September, she reached an out-of-court cash settlement with the
pharmacy, which did not admit to any wrongdoing, Dixon said.