U.S. wants Internet drug stores offline

American consumers are being told to be wary of drugs bought in Canada, writes Mark Kennedy

Mark Kennedy
The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, August 10, 2003

William Hubbard would like Americans to click the delete button on international cyber pharmacy Web sites.

Still, the associate commissioner for policy and planning at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admits he's fighting an uphill battle.

Consumers -- particularly millions of seniors on fixed incomes -- aren't sympathetic to his warnings; advocates for lower drug prices call him a pawn for Big Pharma.

It seems there's little he can do to stop the tidal wave of pills spilling over the Canada-U.S. border.

In both countries, governments are closely watching the new industry explode onto the marketplace, but are doing little, if anything, to address the regulatory void that now exists.

Major U.S. pharmaceutical companies are doing their part to staunch the flow of discount drugs, however. This month Pfizer announced plans to cut off supplies of its products to Canadian pharmacies that sell to U.S. customers, following the move of GlaxoSmithKline.

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