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Buyer Beware When Purchasing Prescription Drugs Overseas
Aug. 18, 2000 (Washington) -- If you travel outside the U.S. and bring back a prescription drug you purchased in the foreign country, are you violating the law? Even if you're just crossing the border into Canada or Mexico, as many Americans are now doing to save money?
The answer, technically, is yes. Under current law, you're not allowed to bring home prescription drugs that you bought overseas, or use a mail-order pharmacy based outside the U.S.
As a practical matter, though, no one will stop you from bringing home a prescription drug purchased outside the U.S that is a personal supply and not intended for commercial resale. Long before the term "don't ask, don't tell" had a different meaning, it summarized the government's enforcement policy. Basically, Customs officials generally do not ask if you are bringing in a personal supply of prescription drugs purchased outside U.S. borders. If you are asked, of course, you must tell.
The law was designed to protect consumers from counterfeit or adulterated drugs. Is this a real problem? You bet! Counterfeit drug and herbal products are not uncommon overseas. Just as there are knockoffs of watches and clothing, chemical companies make knockoffs of medicines. Buyer beware!
This issue of importing prescription drugs into the U.S. has been confused beyond belief by Congress' consideration of legislation that would allow not only consumers, but pharmacists and wholesalers as well, to import drugs. The legislation is well-intended. It is aimed at enabling wholesalers and pharmacists to buy prescription drugs outside the U.S. for less than they would be charged here, thereby lowering costs to the consumer.
But I think Congress is on the wrong track, and I hope rational heads will prevail. If not, we may all have reason to lose confidence in the quality of the prescription drugs we buy, because we won't know where they were made, and how they were stored and shipped, before arriving at our pharmacies and in our bodies.
Both the House and the Senate have passed legislation permitting the importation of prescription drugs from other countries. But there is some confusion, even on Capitol Hill, as to what exactly is covered by the bills. The bills certainly allow re-importation of drugs that were originally made in the U.S. and then exported to foreign countries. At present, only the original manufacturer may re-import the drugs back into the U.S.
There is a question, though, as to whether the bills also cover drugs made in FDA-approved facilities overseas. Now, such drugs can be imported only under the auspices of the original manufacturer.
Efforts to reconcile the differences between the versions passed by the House and Senate, and to clarify the sometimes unclear language, will be discussed by a conference of 10 House and seven Senate members when Congress reconvenes in September.
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