Sour Grapes

Prescription drug sales over the Internet

Michael Geist himself has written an interesting article [Email 'nobody@coldmail.com' and password 'mugsgame' will log you in] in the Toronto Star on the discussion over whether citizens of the U.S. should be able to order drugs from Canada over the internet.

[T]he Canadian and U.S. governments, supported by PhRMA [the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America], have relied on a series of demonstrably false premises to stir fear among the Canadian and American public.

These include claims that online sales of pharmaceuticals from Canadian Internet pharmacies are dangerous, that they will lead to reduced pharmaceutical research and development, and that the sales could result in product shortages in Canada.

Mr Geist then proceeds to discuss each of these claims, and concludes

It is evident that Ottawa's proposed policy is being driven by heavy lobbying from U.S. President George W. Bush (who reportedly raised the issue on his visit to Canada last year) and the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, which retained former American ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin to lobby Canadian officials on the Internet pharmacy issue.

While there may be good reasons for shutting down the online pharmaceutical industry — it is not Canada's place to solve the inequities in the U.S. pharmaceutical market — the public has yet to hear them.

Once again it seems the Bush Administration's dedication to the ideal of free markets is contravened by the apparent need of big business interests to set artificial constraints based on fallacious arguments in order to ensure the higher profits that come from diminished competition.

Original post by Hugh at 2/08/2005 01:45:00 PM Eastern time :: 0 comment(s) :: links to this post

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