Canada to Ban Bulk Exports of Rx Drugs

[cynatnite]

TORONTO - Canada can't continue to be a cheap "drug store for the United States" and intends to ban bulk export of prescription drugs when supplies are low at home, the health minister said Wednesday.

Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said he must ensure Canadians continue to have access to an adequate supply of safe and affordable prescription drugs, and he would launch initiatives, including legislative and regulatory changes, to protect the supply and safety of Canadian drugs.

Dosanjh, in an ambiguous statement at a news conference in Ottawa, said he intended to introduce legislation when the House of Commons reconvenes this fall that would allow for the temporary ban of bulk exports when supplies are running low at home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050629/ap_on_he_me/canada_drugs

[eleny]

1. What else can they do?

They have to take care of their own people. I can't blame them.

[sui generis]

2. I'm all for getting some pitchforks and torches

and rounding up the pharmaceutical lobby.

Somehow we think that Big Pharma has a right to profit no matter what even if withholding drugs from people who can't afford basic care will result in their death.

Our government claims they can't subsidize those programs because the drugs are too expensive yet they don't make a single move in the direction of cost regulation or volume pricing.

Some day it will not just be the elderly neighbor down the street or your daffy old aunt who's splitting or skipping pills . . . it will be you, or your sib or your child.

[The Straight Story]

3. Kicking it. (nt)