Big pharma can t move fast enough to defend itself in the court of public opinion. Selective discounting isn t a death blow to a pharmaceutical company. The high cost of prescription drugs so dominated the election season that politicos from both sides were tripping over each other to appear more solicitous to the elderly. I m not waiting for the drug companies to come to the table before acting, says Republican Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, who pushed the bill through the Senate. And even House Majority Leader Dick Armey, once immovably opposed to undermining the drug industry s price structure, decided he couldn t hold back the populist tide and collected support for the bill.
Drug companies hate the reimportation billwhich amounts to price controls.
The pharmaceuticals argue, among other things, that consumers won t really save that much, given the costs of repackaging the pills from blister packs to vials and the extra U.S. health inspectors who will have to examine the imported medicines. The real objection, of course, is the prodigious threat to profits. How bad a hit to the drug business is anyone s guess at this stage. These are uncharted waters, he says. We could be hurt.