The Young Turks on Democrats voting against Bernie Sanders' amendment for affordable medicine

[uhnope]

[baldguy]

1. It was Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar's amendment.

Sanders was a johnny-come-lately hanger-on co-sponsor.

And if you get rid of Booker because of this one minor vote, lose his voice defending John Lewis.

[George II]

4. The amendment would have failed anyway, so Booker can always use the "Sanders" excuse.

[radical noodle]

2. Please see this DU OP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028477228

[George II]

3. It was a weak and vague amendment that would have accomplished little if anything. Plus.....

....there were 13 Democratic Senators who voted against it, why is it that only Booker "screwed" Sanders? Seems odd, don't you think?

[Ms. Toad]

6. Unless you're one of the millions of Americans

paying several times the cost in the US for drugs that could be imported from Canada. For people with chronic illnesses & costly medicine, the savings can be tremendous.

On just one medicine my daughter takes, the cost is $1321 per month in the US. From Canada, that exact same medicine the cost is $170.40 per month (everything is exactly the same, except the source).

Over a year, that's a $13, 807.20 savings. She has been taking that medication since she was 4 - and is now 26. Yup. A savings for one person, one drug, of $303.758.40 (to date - and she's young, yet) is "little if anything."

If they repeal the ACA and she loses her insurance, I'll be sure to remind her that $13,807.20 each and every year is "little if anything." She should be able to pull that right out of her pocket - considering that is her entire annual income.

And - that is only 1/3 of her annual health care expenses.

[pnwmom]

9. That is why we should be negotiating drug prices with the drug companies,

like every other civilized country.

The problem is that you cannot know that "the exact same medicine" is what you will get from Canada, because Canada has no system for regulating and setting standards for drugs produced outside the country, that then get reimported into the US.

As a consequence, there are companies that sell fake versions on online sites to Americans. We've had this problem occur in Washington State, which is why Patty Murray was one of the people voting against this particular amendment. She says she is in favor of the idea overall, but that amendment wouldn't assure Americans we actually were getting the real product.

[Ms. Toad]

11. I agree as to negotiating drug prices,

but safety issues as to Canadian medicines are primarily a bogeyman thrown up to make it seem as if there is a valid reason for voting against the amendment. There isn't.

Here are some pertinent facts: pharmacies in many countries sell brand name drug products produced in either one or a small number of factories run or contracted by multinational drug companies throughout the world. Unless the big pharmaceutical companies are hiding something, there’s no difference in the quality of their medications whether it’s sold in Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Barbados, Turkey, or Mars.

https://www.pharmacycheckerblog.com/so-you-want-to-buy-cheap-medicine-from-an-actual-canadian-pharmacy-heres-the-deal

[pnwmom]

12. No, it's not a bogeyman. Canada does nothing to regulate drugs that pass through

the country or are listed on online websites as coming from Canada.

Seattle is one of the cities where they've been found.

http://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=cwilj

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2016/03/16/drug-importation-equals-unsafe-drugs-mr-trump/#582b57a6bd3d

In August of 2003, during the earlier drug importation debate, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) examined mail shipments of imported drugs flowing to U.S. consumers through Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Carson, CA. Investigators found that 88% of the drugs they examined did not meet FDA standards. The packages often contained dangerous, unapproved, or counterfeit drugs.

A second inspection blitz in November of 2003—at the Buffalo, Dallas, Chicago and Seattle mail facilities and the Memphis and Cincinnati courier hubs—revealed similar problems: 1,728 “unapproved drugs” among the 1,982 parcels inspected. The unapproved drugs included “foreign versions” of FDA-approved drugs, recalled drugs, drugs requiring special storage conditions, drugs requiring close physician monitoring, and animal drugs not approved for humans.

Former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, under whose leadership the investigations took place, warned that drug importation “creates a wide channel for large volumes of unapproved drugs and other products to enter the United States that are potentially injurious to public health and pose a threat to the security of our Nation’s drug supply.”

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Testimony/ucm115171.htm

From a public health standpoint, importing prescription drugs for personal use is a potentially dangerous practice. FDA and the public have no assurance that unapproved products are effective or safe, or have been produced under U.S. good manufacturing practices. FDA cannot assure the public that re-imported drugs made in the U.S. have been stored under proper conditions or that they are even the real product, because the Agency does not regulate foreign distributors or pharmacies. Therefore, unapproved drugs and re-imported approved medications may be contaminated, subpotent, superpotent, or counterfeit. In addition, some websites based outside the U.S. offer to dispense prescription drugs without a prescription by a licensed practitioner or a physical examination, bypassing the traditional doctor-patient relationship. As a result, patients may receive inappropriate medications due to misdiagnoses, they may fail to receive appropriate medications or other medical care, or they may take a product that could be harmful, or fatal, if taken in combination with other medicines they might be taking.



KittyWampus had a good post yesterday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8477228

[Ms. Toad]

13. Not buying the paternalistic, demonizing posture that benefits the US pharmaceutical industry

at the expense access to health care by Americans. Canada is not a third world country. It has a better health care system than the US - and certainly equivalent oversight by the HPFB of the integrity and quality of its pharmaceuticals.

You're also throwing up strawmen by suggesting that permitting the purchase of drugs from Canada requires permitting US citizens to import drugs acquired without a prescription, or to acquire drugs from other countries that merely pass through Canada.

If you don't believe it is safe or trust your abilities to make good choices about where you buy your medicine, you don't have to take advantage of it. Under HPFB oversight, these drugs would likely be safer - and correlate better to what they purport to be, than the myriad of "natural"/supplements/homeopathic/etc. things people buy in any health foods store in the US - which are subject to very little oversight to ensure they are what they purport to be, that they have been stored properly, etc.

For $13,000 a year - the SAVINGS on ONE of my daughter's drugs, I can buy an awful lot of careful checking to make sure the pharmacy is legitimate, Canadian, and that the drug is actually manufactured by the same company as the one she is getting it from now. I'd prefer having that option - especially if every penny spent on her medical care comes out of my retirement money until it is exhausted once the ACA is rescinded.

And - as I expected - truly progressive Democrats, like Sherrod Brown & Elizabeth Warren, voted for it. That should tell you something.

[pnwmom]

14. Of course Canada isn't a third world country. But they don't regulate the

drugs that pass through Canada from other countries. That's the problem.

I'm sure you, personally, can find trustworthy sources. But do you know that some US doctors were tricked into buying fake CANCER drugs for their patients? Before we open the door to widespread reimportation, we need to solve the problem of how to protect the patients from fake, adulterated, or low potency drugs that only appear to come from Canada.

And we need to do this because most people aren't as smart as you. That's how come we've managed to elect DT.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/31/health/counterfeit-medications/

The World Health Organization estimates as many as 50% of illicit online pharmacies are selling counterfeit medications.

And in a 2014 annual report, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in the United States concluded after sampling more than 11,000 Internet pharmacies that a staggering 96% of those pharmacies did not comply with NABP patient safety and pharmacy practice standards, or state and federal laws, and were deemed by the NABP as "not recommended."

SNIP

That heart medication being advertised at a fraction of the price might contain rat poison. The cholesterol lowering drug you are taking could be filled with brick dust. And the antibiotic may be filled with other toxic chemicals such as paint or inkjet material.

SNIP

The online sellers are clever, often advertising themselves as Canadian to ease the consumer's mind about the source of the drugs. But many of those websites are phony, and the drugs are coming from counterfeiters all over the world. The countries topping the counterfeit drug manufacturing list are India and China.


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/abc-news-investigation-counterfeit-prescription-drug-operations-us/story?id=31077758

A popular way many customers get cheaper prescription drugs is to try to order them online from Canada. There are numerous small storefronts across the country with names like Canada Drugs or Canada Direct, advertising inexpensive drugs, but there are questions over whether the medicines being sold are pure, or even from Canada.

I was one of several ABC News producers to investigate these stores, using real prescriptions from our doctors for four different drugs -- Viagra, Zocor heart medication, generic Cialis and generic Propecia for hair loss -- to see if what we received from these stores was authentic.

SNIP

But while all of these stores advertised a Canada connection, Howard Sklamberg with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Global Regulatory Operations, who is also a former prosecutor, said in reality only a “small percentage” of drugs coming through these storefronts are actually from Canada. He said most of the medicine ordered from these storefronts do not meet FDA standards.

“They could have dangerous contaminants,” he said. “And that's just a really, really, really big risk to take with your health.” Federal authorities point multiple examples of where these counterfeit drugs actually come from – Columbia, Peru, even China. ABC News had all four drugs – the Viagra, Zocor, generic Cialis and generic Propecia – tested at a variety of labs, from the Custom and Border Protection Lab in Newark, New Jersey, Eli Lilly’s Lab in Indianapolis, Indiana and the University of Montreal’s Department of Chemistry.

The generic Cialis and generic Propecia both arrived in packages from India and both came back containing impurities. In fact, a chemical test on the generic Propecia tablet revealed an unknown ingredient and unknown properties mixed in with the active ones.

SNIP



http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/08/11/Canadian-pharmacy-accused-of-selling-fake-cancer-drugs-to-US-doctors/3611439325784/

HELENA, Mont., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors have accused a Canadian pharmacy of selling some $78 million in counterfeit, misbranded and unapproved drugs -- including those that treat cancer -- to U.S. doctors.

In an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Montana, the company and its affiliates have been charged with smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy. The indictment was returned by a grand jury in November 2014, but a redacted document wasn't unsealed until July.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/10/save-money-by-ordering-drugs-from-canada-not-so-fast/index.htm

The most prevalent financial problem Americans face month in month out is the inability to afford their medicines. That’s according to a monthly national poll by Consumer Reports National Research Center. Indeed, medication in the U.S. can cost up to twice as much as it does in other parts of the world, so many bargain hunters turn to the Web seeking discounted, name-brand prescription drugs from Canada or other countries. But recent analysis has found that buyers should beware: Only a fraction of online pharmacies are legitimate. Our medical consultants say that given such risks, ordering from foreign websites should be avoided altogether.

Of the more than 8,300 online pharmacies reviewed in July 2011 by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), which accredits online drugstores in addition to representing state pharmacy boards across the U.S., just over 3 percent appear to be sound. It considers the rest to be “rogue” operations.

SNIP


And for those seeking safety by ordering specifically from Canadian websites, there’s something else to consider. “Many of the Canadian sites aren’t Canadian at all,” says Carmen Catizone, NABP’s executive director.

While there are legitimate online Canadian pharmacies regulated by Health Canada, a government agency similar to the FDA, Canadian pharmacies that ship prescription medication to the U.S. aren’t subject to Canadian regulatory authority, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A spokesperson for Health Canada declined to assess the specific risks posed by these websites to Americans but did point out the Canadian government’s own warnings to its citizens about the risk of purchasing drugs on the Internet.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4105729/

Discussion

The issue of counterfeit drugs has been growing in importance in the United States, with the supply of these counterfeit drugs coming from all over the world. Innovation is important to economic growth and US competitiveness in the global marketplace, and intellectual property protections provide the ability for society to prosper from innovation. Especially important in terms of innovation in healthcare are the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. In addition to taking income from consumers and drug companies, counterfeit drugs also pose health hazards to patients, including death. The case of bevacizumab (Avastin) is presented as one recent example. Internet pharmacies, which are often the source of counterfeit drugs, often falsely portray themselves as Canadian, to enhance their consumer acceptance. Adding to the problems are drug shortages, which facilitate access for counterfeits. A long and convoluted supply chain also facilitates counterfeits. In addition, the wholesale market involving numerous firms is a convenient target for counterfeit drugs. Trafficking in counterfeits can be extremely profitable; detection of counterfeits is difficult, and the penalties are modest.

Conclusion

Counterfeit drugs pose a public health hazard, waste consumer income, and reduce the incentive to engage in research and development and innovation. Stronger state licensure supervision of drug suppliers would be helpful. Technological approaches, such as the Radio Frequency Identification devices, should also be considered. Finally, counterfeit drugs may raise concerns among consumers about safety and reduce patient medication adherence.

[Eric J in MN]

7. It was vague because it wasn't a bill. It was the first step

...towards writing a bill.

[jalan48]

5. We have the best system money can buy.

[dawg]

8. TYT does more to advance the conservative agenda than Cory Booker ever could.

I've got no time for them.

[pnwmom]

10. +1. n/t

[uhnope]

15. how, exactly?

or was that just a hit and run?