Chip Taylor

Outsourcing pharmaceutical price controls

Canada doesn't want our business.

TORONTO, June 29 - The government announced Wednesday that it was drafting legislation to limit bulk exports of essential Canadian drugs in an effort to ensure that online pharmacy sales to the United States do not cause domestic shortages. But the proposal fell far short of what the online pharmacy industry feared might have forced it to leave Canada.

It is unlikely that the two million uninsured and underinsured Americans who depend on cheaper Canadian drugs to treat chronic conditions will be immediately affected. It is possible, however, that tighter regulations in Canada may give other foreign online suppliers a new competitive edge and encourage Canadian companies to warehouse more of their inventories in other countries.

"Canada cannot be the drugstore of the United States of America," Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh told reporters as he announced the legislation and several vaguely defined proposed regulatory changes, including one that could limit some Canadian doctors' practice of co-signing online prescriptions for American patients without examining them.

"We have to make sure that we protect the safety and supply of the drugs for Canadians," Mr. Dosanjh said, "and also the safety of the consumers of these prescriptions."

He said new regulations were needed because he expected the United States Congress to pass legislation that would allow large imports of prescription drugs.