As a second-year doctor of pharmacy student working the front-lines of retail pharmacy, I must respond to January 7th’s editorial “Canada’s Drugs Still Safe.” Every day I see patients who are faced with prohibitively high drug costs, yet drug importation is not necessarily the answer. The underlying concern of most pharmacists’ professional organizations is public safety.
While the FDA may not be perfect – as seen with Vioxx – there is no system in the world to ensure quality products like we have here in the United States. Canada does not have the resources to inspect the drugs they import from other countries and then resell to you. There is virtually no guarantee that the name on the bottle actually implies what is in the bottle. Even if it’s a drug chemical that is approved by the FDA in the United States, if it’s not made here and FDA inspected, it is an unapproved drug.
Getting drugs today isn’t just about counting and pouring pills. Careful monitoring of drug history, interactions, allergic reactions, side effects, and expected outcomes are all part of pharmaceutical care that pharmacists here in the United States provide to each patient we see.
In relation, drug costs only count for about 10% of total health care costs. Even so, did you know that many of the profits from these expensive drugs are reinvested into research and development for newer, better drugs?
The creation of Medicare Part D in December 2003 was the most significant change in health care for seniors in close to forty years. The federal government will spend almost $400 billion to help 41 million seniors tackle these high costs. While not a cure-all, it is a step in the right direction and will hopefully eliminate some of the need for drug importation.
This is the second editorial (this and Prescribing Morality November 12, 2004) by Wood that as a student pharmacist I have taken offense to. I would be interested to know how she knows so much about our professional duties, code of ethics, and the oath we take to not only help patients, but to uphold our own moral standards.
Meghan DeVitoSecond year doctor of pharmacy
