The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board Comes Out Against Drug Importation

The editorial board of the The Wall Street Journal published this editorial on April 15, 2019. In it, they write:

“The argument that drug importation threatens the integrity of the drug supply is often dismissed because pharmaceutical lobbyists make it. But keeping the drug supply free from contaminated or counterfeit products is not easy, and the World Health Organization has warned that 1 in 10 medical products in the developing world are phony. It isn’t clear who is liable if counterfeits are found in Florida, but you can bet it won’t be the politicians.”

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Drug importation makes law enforcement’s job harder, says former FDA-OCI director

In this editorial, which was published in The Gadsden Times on April 11, 2019, former FDA-OCI director George Karavetsos points out the real dangers of drug importation:

“Even today, Americans are being hurt and even dying because of counterfeit medications being imported into this country. Adding insult to injury, while some might point to Canada as being a safe source, counterfeit medications are transshipped through Canada from other countries in remote corners of the globe.”

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Tampa Pharmacist Speaks Out Against Florida’s Drug Importation Proposal

This editorial by Dan Fucarino was published in Florida Politics on April 1, 2019. Mr Fucarino is the owner and a pharmacist at Carrollwood Compounding Center & Pharmacy.

“The monetary rewards of Canadian prescriptions are just not worth their safety risks,” he warns. “I urge Florida legislators to listen to health care experts on this issue rather than the understandable populist appeals and vote no on this dangerous legislation — and then get back to working on more productive ways to lower drug prices for Floridians. Thousands of Americans have been injured or killed by imported prescription drugs.”

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Drug Importation Claim vs. Fact At Florida Senate Subcommittee Hearing

Experts and leadership from The Partnership for Safe Medicines were in Tallahassee, Florida on Monday, March 25th for a Senate hearing on an ill-advised Canadian drug importation bill. During the hearing, our team heard many false or misleading statements about the proposal to take medicine out of the Canadian medicine supply and ship it to Florida. Here’s a fact check of the most egregious ones…

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Partnership for Safe Medicines’ Statement on Florida’s Drug Importation Proposals

[UPDATE: This statement has been updated to include all three pieces of pending legislation in Florida. March 5, 2019] Washington, D.C. (March 5, 2019) – Shabbir Safdar, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement today in response to three separate proposals from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and and the state…

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FDA Alert: Happy Together, Inc. Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Product Due to Presence of Undeclared Sildenafil and Tadalafil

Happy Together, Inc. Boynton Beach, FL is voluntarily recalling all lots within expiry of the Rhino 5k capsules to the consumer level. FDA analysis founds these products to be tainted with sildenafil and Tadalafil. Sildenafil/Tadalafil is an FDA approved drug for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, the presence of sildenafil in the Rhino 5k products renders them unapproved drugs for which safety and efficacy have not been established, therefor subject to recall.

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