WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is opening up the door to importing prescription drugs — at least in a limited number of cases.
The administration said Thursday that the Department of Health and Human Services will form a working group to look at the idea of importing drugs from other countries in cases in which there is a dramatic price increase for a drug produced by one manufacturer and not protected by patents or exclusivities.
And although the announcement was cast as an early step, health secretary Alex Azar left little doubt the administration planned to eventually approve a significant policy change.
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No one really expects this Industry Insider to improve anything. Azar merely co opted the idea. Importing drugs as long as there are specific conditions, only complicates an already cumbersome system. This is the kind of meaningless “Reforms” we can expect. The “Robust safety requirements” of the US, has been used as an excuse to deprive people of their life savings, or their very lives. This is simply catering to the corruption of the Pharma industry, which Azar chose to carefully avoid.
They continue to tout the corrupted Free Market System which holds corporate profits over the lives of Americans. This is just a stop gap measure that will be touted as if it is meaningful, even here. This does nothing to curb the rampant price gouging, theft of public research, and criminal behavior. The failure to regulate the marketing of prescription drugs, and the refusal to enforce our laws has led to thousands of premature deaths. The fix is in, there will be no meaningful improvement here, merely this kind of nonsense. This is what happens when politicians and policy makers are bought and paid for.
Many of these pharmaceuticals are made in dirty factories overseas, and then imported anyway.
Buprenorphine has been available for pain nearly 20 years, with no deaths used alone & without CNS depression, and works well. Yet ins co’s and most Medicaids refuse it for pain. That is in the middle of an opiate epidemic. Should this be about cost or saving lives?