GOVERNMENT & MEDICINE

States challenge FDA in fight over drug reimportation

Vermont sues for the right to reimport medications, and Illinois moves forward with its program. Meanwhile, the FDA stops companies helping citizens get Canadian drugs.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Sept. 6, 2004.

The struggle between the federal government and the states over prescription drug reimportation has heated up on two fronts but cooled down on another.

Within days of each other, Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich unveiled a plan to let residents buy prescription drugs from other nations, and Vermont sued the federal government for the right to reimport prescription medications. But at the same time, the federal government announced what it sees as a victory for patient safety. Two companies with stores and Internet sites agreed to stop helping U.S. citizens buy drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

At press time, Food and Drug Administration officials had not yet had time to review the Vermont lawsuit, but they said the state acted within its rights in challenging the federal stance against reimportation.

"We appreciate the fact that [Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas] is working within the legal system unlike other states, like Illinois," said William Hubbard, FDA associate commissioner for policy and planning. The agency will vigorously defend itself in court, he said.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 19 in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., alleges that the government wrongly denied Vermont's request earlier this year to establish a reimportation program. The FDA rejected the request because it was worried about drug safety. The lawsuit, the first of its kind, comes at a time when states and some physicians are struggling to find ways to help patients safely buy medications priced lower in other nations.

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