Commentary; Posted: 11/12/03

Pawlenty plan will see legal challenge

Merrill Matthews, Jr., PhD
Guest Columnist

Where's a good trial lawyer when you need one? Several elected officials may find out soon if they move forward with plans to import drugs from foreign countries. Michael Albano, the mayor of Springfield, MA., has enrolled more than 1000 city employees in a program that imports drugs from a Canadian wholesaler called CanaRx Services Inc.

And now the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota are considering similar plans for their state employees.

Albano is not a doctor, pharmacist or any type of health care professional, yet he has taken to lecturing the Food and Drug Administration óand other groups such as the American Medical Association that also oppose importation ó proclaiming that imported drugs are safe and cheap, and scolding anyone who dares to suggest otherwise.

The FDA, with some of the worldís top prescription drug experts ó who have years of experience trying to keep counterfeit, diluted, mishandled and mislabeled drugs out of the country óthinks the mayor is exposing his employees to real dangers and has strongly urged him to stop. Albano isnít concerned. He reportedly said he visited the CanaRx facilities in Canada and looked around a bit and, drawing on his total lack of experience inspecting prescription drug facilities, pronounced it safe.

Hmmm! An elected official flagrantly disregards government warnings to cease and desist what heís doing because it could harm patients? And then the federal government discovers that some of the very drugs being imported under the mayorís program have been compromised? Sounds like a class action suit just looking for the right opportunity (read: victim).

If the mayor continues down this road, there is a strong possibility he will have a chance to prove in court that he knows more than all the experts ó as the defendant.

Think for a minute what might happen to an employer who flagrantly ignored federal work safety guidelines for employees ó even boasted about it and publicized his efforts to ignore them. What would happen if several employees were injured or killed because of the employer's negligence? And Albano is much more blatant about thumbing his nose at federal law than most employers who try to skirt workplace safety rules.

Under Canadian law, a pharmaceutical wholesaler who isnít selling to Canadians isnít regulated by Health Canada, the agency that regulates prescription drugs.

The problem Americans face is how to tell the good pharmacies (and especially online pharmacies) from the bad ones ó or more to the point, how to tell the good drugs from the bad ones. I guess we can always ask Mayor Albano.

We in the U.S. have enjoyed the safest drug supply of any country in the world. Thatís changing. The FDA has dramatically ramped up efforts to crack down on groups ó which include organized crime and terrorists ó involved in the production, sale and shipment of counterfeit drugs.

Thus, when a city or state employee is harmed by imported drugs, trial lawyers will have a good case that the elected officials promoting the program acted negligently. Knowingly breaking federal law is criminal activity. Doing it in spite of repeated warnings by the federal agency of jurisdiction is gross negligence.

If elected officials think their budgets are tight now, wait until they are faced with a multi-million dollar jury verdict.

Writer Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D., is a visiting scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation and director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, Alexandria, VA. The Council is a research and advocacy association of insurance carriers active in the individual, small group, MSA and senior markets. CAHIís membership includes insurance companies, small businesses, providers, nonprofit associations, actuaries, insurance brokers and individuals. Since 1992, CAHI has been an advocate for market-oriented solutions to problems in America's health care system.

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