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Illinois
to Become First State to Provide Drugs from
Canada, Ireland and UK - Initial Targets Senior Citizens
Governor Blagojevich says state will contract
with and inspect foreign pharmacies to launch online and toll-free
ordering system; Illinois citizens stand to save 25-50% on cost of Rx
drugs
Aug. 17, 2004 After nearly a year of working
diligently to secure federal cooperation in providing Illinois residents
with access to safe, affordable drugs from Canada, Governor Rod R.
Blagojevich and Congressman Rahm Emanuel today announced Illinois will
become the first state in the nation to help consumers get a better deal
on their medications by giving them access to lower cost prescription
drugs available in Canada, the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland.
Prescription drugs in Canada and Europe are typically 25-50% cheaper
than in the United States.
Illinois will contract with a Pharmacy Benefits
Manager (PBM) to establish a clearinghouse of state-inspected and
approved pharmacies and wholesalers in Canada, Ireland and the United
Kingdom. The new system will be available on-line and will be the first
in the United States to reach beyond Canada to meet the growing demand
for affordable drugs, and to provide ongoing state oversight of foreign
pharmacies.
We have taken every possible step we could think
of to convince the FDA, the Congress, and anyone and everyone who will
listen, that people across Illinois, and across our country, deserve
access to safe and lower cost prescription drugs, said Gov. Blagojevich.
We can't keep asking people to spend more money
than they have just to afford the medicine they need. We can't keep
asking the 500,000 senior citizens who live in Illinois and lack
prescription drug coverage to keep deciding do I pay for my medicine or
do I buy my groceries? These are real choices people have to make
every single day. And it shouldn't have to be that way. And they
shouldn't have to keep waiting for their government to help them. The
federal government has failed to act. So it's time that we do.
In May, Gov. Blagojevich dispatched a delegation
made up of members of his staff, the Office of Special Advocates for
Prescription Drugs and the Departments of Public Health and Professional
Regulation to research whether Illinois could look to Europe for safe
and affordable prescription drugs.
The Illinois delegation met with representatives
from governments, pharmacies, wholesalers, parallel importers, health
and insurance funds, and professional and trade associations in Belgium,
France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
They methodically assessed pharmacy practices,
manufacturing practices, warehousing and storage, and distribution and
dispensing processes and compared them with Illinois standards and
practices. The delegation concluded that Illinois could establish a
network of foreign pharmacies that would meet state standards and
provide safe medications at much lower prices.
Today the Governor released the report of the
European study, the findings of which closely mirror those of the
Canadian study. The experts found that Illinois consumers could save
money by buying their medications from European pharmacies, and could
obtain safe prescription drugs equivalent in every way to the
medications they purchase in the U.S.
And so today, I am announcing that Illinois will
become the first state in the nation to give its citizens the
opportunity to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, Ireland, and the
United Kingdom. That means that the 12.6 million people who live in
Illinois will now have the opportunity to save hundreds, and in some
cases thousands of dollars, on the high cost of their prescription
drugs. We can't keep asking people to spend more money than they have
just to afford the medicine they need, the Governor said.
Today once again the State of Illinois is leading
the nation in an effort to provide life saving medications at affordable
prices to citizens in Illinois as well as saving taxpayers millions of
dollars. It is time for the Senate to follow the State of Illinois and
the House of Representatives and pass legislation that an overwhelming
majority of Americans support. Governor Blagojevich and the State of
Illinois are joining the other states and municipalities in a growing
movement while Washington sits on the sidelines, said Congressman Rahm
Emanuel.
The new program will connect users to a Canadian
clearinghouse through the internet or a toll-free telephone number,
providing country-by-country information on the prices and availability
of approximately 100 of the most common brand-name medications used to
treat chronic or long-term conditions, and enabling Illinois consumers
to order their drugs from the country of their choice for 25 to 50
percent less than the U.S. retail price. If all Illinois residents used
the program to purchase medications available through the website, total
projected savings could reach $1.9 billion in the first year.
The Illinois import program will build-in numerous
safety measures to ensure the quality and safety of drugs dispensed.
The list of available drugs will be limited to those that are used for
long periods of time, and that cannot be spoiled during the shipping
process. Consumers will be able to order eligible drugs for re-fill
only, so patients and their doctors have had time to review for
unanticipated side-effects or interactions.
For new enrollees, the U.S. doctors can fax or
patients can mail in an original prescription to the clearinghouse where
it will be reviewed for appropriateness, and then turned over to a
program physician for review. If the program physician approves, he or
she will re-write the prescription and submit it to a network pharmacy.
The pharmacy will perform a final safety check to comply with local laws
and regulations before dispensing the medication. For pre-enrolled
patients, the medication will be delivered within two weeks of the day
the prescription and order are received by the pharmacy.
All medications will come from the PBMs network of
state inspected and approved providers in Canada, Ireland, and the
United Kingdom. The Illinois Department of Public Health and the
Department of Professional Regulation will work with the PBM to inspect
all network pharmacies to ensure they meet the states pharmaceutical
safety standards.
In its initial rollout, the import program
will be targeted at the estimated 23 percent of the states population,
including 500,000 senior citizens, who lack prescription drug coverage
and are forced to pay the highest drug prices in the world. In the
second phase, the state will waive co-payments for members of its
employee and retiree health plans who purchase their medications through
the website, saving the state up to $50 million. In the final phase, up
to twelve months after the initial launch, the import plan will be
expanded to include other state programs like the Circuit Breaker
Pharmaceutical Assistance program, as well as small businesses that
dont offer prescription coverage to their employees.
Last fall, the Governor sent a team of experts to
Canada to study the impact of importing prescription drugs from that
country. The group reported that importing prescription drugs from
Canada is not only safe, but in some cases, even safer than purchasing
prescription drugs here in the United States. The Governor and his
experts then traveled to Washington, D.C. to share the results of their
study with other experts and leaders around the country, and met with
members of Congress and officials from the FDA and the Department of
Health and Human Services.
In December, Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago)
joined Governor Blagojevich in asking the federal government for a
special waiver to launch a pilot program to import prescription drugs
from Canada. After weeks of waiting for a response, the Governor helped
organize a class action lawsuit to give senior citizens across the
nation, the same opportunities that senior citizens in states that
border Canada have to purchase cheaper prescription drugs.
And as we've done all of this over the past year,
the reality is the cost of prescription drugs in the United States has
not gone down but instead has actually gone up. In fact, because of the
current policies of the federal government, we are going in the wrong
direction on the issue of prescription drugs, said Blagojevich.
Last year, the prices of the thirty prescription
drugs used most by senior citizens rose more than four times faster than
the rate of inflation, according to Families USA. And as seniors in
droves turned to Canada for better prices, at lease five major drug
makers began to limit supplies to Canadian pharmacies that served
Americans.
The drug-makers actions made it clear that Canada
could not be the sole supplier for an Illinois drug import program,
prompting Gov. Blagojevich to expand his review of foreign
pharmaceutical systems.
At the end of January, the state of Minnesota
launched a website that connects consumers to two Canadian pharmacies
that were approved by state inspectors. Wisconsin, New Hampshire and
North Dakota have since established similar sites.
Despite its public opposition to prescription drug
importation, the FDA has not taken action against any of the states.
Illinois program will go a step further by
including approved European pharmacies in the network, and by providing
ongoing state oversight of the network wholesalers and pharmacies.
The new Illinois website and toll-free service will
be operational within a month.
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