These are the inescapable conclusions after seizures recently started again. This prompted us to submit a series of inquiries to the FDA. The responses did not directly answer the questions. Now even more significantly, correspondence by the FDA to which we have gained access claims that "it is prohibited by congress (sic) to purchase prescription (sic) by mail."
Either the person making the statement is completely uninformed or is guilty of a deliberate falsehood.
As long ago as 2000, Congress approved the concept of 'reimportation', a misnomer since virtually no medicines are produced in the U.S. and the majority of prescriptions purchased in the U.S. is imported from other countries.
It was also passed in the last year of the Bush Administration, only to be turned away because it was attached to the FDA Reauthorization Bill, and President Bush had threatened a veto if the bill contained provisions for importation.
Added to this is the fact that for nearly a decade, personal importation has been supported by a huge number of sponsors in the House of Representatives and the Senate, only to be denied a vote because of parliamentary maneuvering by the highly effective pharmaceutical lobby.
That U.S. citizens should be denied access to vital, safe, affordable medicines via individual purchases for whatever reason best fits the moment for the FDA indicates that the agency, even in light of its failed record of safety for a number of products, is willing to allocate its limited resources to hindering personal importation.
One can only wonder whether such actions might actually do more harm to the people whose health it should be protecting by denying Americans access to personal importation as an integral part of their health regimen.
It is also reasonable to wonder whether or not seizing of safe, affordable medicines is done at the risk of detracting from seizures of counterfeit drugs from bogus pharmacies.
Some background is in order:
I have been and continue to be a strong supporter of personal importation. In that capacity I have worked—and continue to do so-- with seniors’ advocacy groups, policy-makers and as a communications consultant for companies that support importation of safe affordable medicines.
I have contacted and been in the offices of numerous Congressmen and Senators to make them aware of past actions by the FDA, Homeland Security and Customs in denying seniors and untold numbers of other Americans vital medicines that are important to the health and well-being of the persons ordering the medicines.
In 2006, we were successful in what, to that time, had been the to that time the most major abuse of power regarding seizures when elderly people across the country were not only having their medicines seized, but were receiving threatening letters from Customs officials telling the seniors that they were in violation of U.S. law.
This is, I and many others believe, a debatable point depending on one’s interpretation of the availability statement on the FDA’s own site saying that if a medicine or medical device is not available in this country, an individual may purchase it from outside the U.S.
My view is that if a medicine is unaffordable, it is certainly ‘unavailable’. Futher more, in an even more abusive attempt to scare America's elderly, in its letter, Customs went on to force the individuals to acknowledge that they knew they had violated U.S. law and were subject to prosecution if they continued to engage in such behavior, namely ordering medicines that helped keep them alive.
A sense of righteous indignation set in among elected officials. Then-Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) offered to file a friend of the court brief should supporters of importation decide that legal action be taken, his purpose being to illustrate how the FDA, Customs and Homeland Security were thumbing their nose at Congress. Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and David Vitter (R-LA) sponsored legislation to end the seizures, a clear signal that it did not approve of the actions of regulatory agencies designed to enforce the intent of the Legislative branch, not to design and interpret laws and make policy.
It was evident that the FDA was denying access to drugs that had not been tested for safety and efficacy. This is a crucial point since in the latest communications with FDA, the agency now (2009) says it does not have test results to affirm safety and efficacy. It does claim to have conduct tests and found ‘some drugs’ to not be authentic, but will not provide results from any tests it might have conducted on legitimate medicines. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that it has made its decisions whether to seize or not strictly upon country of origin rather than safety and efficacy
In 2006, the outrage over the seizures led to what was described as a ‘historic vote’ as the Senate took action, voting 68-32 to forbid such seizures. (And, herein lies the basis of the basis of the current disingenuous rationale of FDA…which now claims in verbatim statements that follow that the legislation was directed only towards Homeland Security, although the spokesperson for DHS at the time clearly states that the department was working in cooperation with FDA.
It is clear that the intent of the Congressional action—an intent which it clearly understood—was to defer seizures of specific medicines and pharmacies from acknowledged safe sources.
It was not aimed at hampering the seizures of counterfeit medicines from bogus pharmacies. Since the FDA, according to the comments of other agencies was cooperating in such seizures, this intent was directed equally towards all agencies involved in the seizures.
The issue seemed to be settled with the 2008 Presidential election. Both candidates supported importation of safe, affordable medicines from outside the U.S., and today, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) remains an outspoken advocate of importation.
Still, seizures have recently increased. This led us to make contacts with an FDA spokesperson to seek the rationale of the agency for the seizures. We had--and continue to have--several questions, including whether increased seizures might be a part of the deal struck by PhRMA to 'lower' the price and rate of increase of medicines in Medicare Part D's Doughnut Hole. That the claimed savings are illusionary and have been challenged by many policy-makers and advocates only adds to the suspicion that there might have been some 'quid pro quo' made by the Administration in return for PhRMA's 'cooperation.
But, it is an ill wind that blows now good. The responses to the series of inquiries and later statements made by other FDA officials in justifying seizures of personally imported medicines with a proven record of safety and efficacy, and absolutely no record of coming from bogus pharmacies or being counterfeit is illustrative of an agency that is suffering either from miscommunications in defense of its stance on such seizures, a complete lack of respect for the intent of the U.S. Congress, or a bias that indicates the unwillingness of the FDA to stick to its own guidelines as to its 'primary' reason for seizures--or all of the afore mentioned.
The FDA is a severely criticized agency. It has failed to protect American consumers from easily identifiable sources of potential contamination of on the medical front such as failure to identify defective medical devices from China. Even though it claims concern for drug safety, it failed to identify unsafe ingredients from China are blamed for deaths from Heparin, manufactured by Baxter.
It has also been criticized for failures in protecting the U.S. food supply for products ranging from domestically grown peanuts to imports of unsafe foods from China.
It is a matter of public record that the FDA has limited resources. So when we made our contact with a staffer assigned to deal with questions involving importation, our first question, submitted in writing was:
Knowing of admittedly limited resources of the FDA, how does the agency reconcile the seizure of proven safe medicines from legitimate pharmacies (albeit from outside the U.S.) with the possibility that dispersing those limited resources might actually increase the chances of counterfeit medicines from bogus pharmacies escaping seizures.The answer such as it is follows:
"Because of limited resources the FDA uses a risk based approach to detention and actions related to imported drugs"
This is a typical Public Relations approach in which one answers a question that was not asked. It fails to address the question that was asked, and is nothing less than a tacit admission that the people making the seizures have no idea of the safety or efficacy of the medicines.
The agency has made a decision that it is doing more to promote drug safety by seizing individual purchases of medicines than to allocate its resources, which the FDA admits are limited, towards identifying bogus pharmacies and counterfeit drugs.
If the FDA needs help in identifying and distinguishing legitimate pharmacies from other countries, whose standards of quality meet or exceed those of the agency, surely a measured and more effective use of 'limited' resources could be expended in working for reciprocal arrangements to identify those pharmacies. If it needs help to identify bogus pharmacies, I suggest the agency cooperate with the Canadian International Pharmacy Association which has worked diligently to identify bogus pharmacies, or that it take advantage of several other sources that have done so.
Another question asked was about the 2006 vote:
Congress voted to end the seizure of prescription medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies via Canadian pharmacies. How does the FDA reconcile that intent of Congress with the broad brush approach that such imported medicines are subject to seizure? Does the FDA supersede the Congress in this instance?The response follows:
“What you are referring to was directed to DHS authority. Under the FDA's current authorities, most of these drugs are illegal and unapproved.”
This is, as noted above, completely disingenuous. In a statement at the time of the vote, the following statement was issued:
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson in a statement said, "While we are reversing this policy, (Customs and Border Protection) remains committed, in cooperation with the FDA, to protecting the American public from unsafe and ineffective medications. We will be focusing our resources to best protect the American public." An FDA spokesperson declined to comment on the decision to end the seizures.
This statement makes the record clear. Congress had a clear intention to end seizures. At the time, the FDA declined comment, buy its silence spoke volumes in light of the admission by DHS that the policy was conducted in cooperation with the FDA.
While the spokesperson for FDA provided written answers, most of them were as follows:
“Under current law, these products are illegal. Sometimes FDA does test products, and we have found substandard and counterfeit drugs.”
This led to yet another question:
Is the reason for such seizures continue based upon the point of origin, or has the FDA conducted any tests on the seized medicines from such pharmacies as described in (2) to determine the efficacy, quality, safety of the affected medicines? If so, what are the results of such testing? (For the record, (2) refers to “vital prescription medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies in other countries who standards of oversight meet or exceed those of the FDA?”The response follows:
Under current law, these products are illegal. Sometimes FDA does test products, and we have found substandard and counterfeit drugs.
The response seems to indicate that the FDA has indeed tested and found problems with prescription medicines from the designated Tier One countries.
But the response to a specific request indicates that this is not the case.
The question follows:
This is a request for the specific findings of substandard and counterfeit drugs from any licensed registered pharmacy from outside the U.S.
The response follows:
FDA does not have that information to share. Testing typically performed by the FDA relates to the identity and content of the product, and not to the efficacy, quality and safety of those products.
And therein lies the self-imposed dilemma of the FDA.
It admits that it has not only has no reason for making seizures based on safety and efficacy of the legitimate vital medicines it has seized, but instead relies upon country of origin. Add to this, the attempts to twist the intent of Congress on forbidding such seizures, and the complete misstatement about Congress forbidding the purchase of prescriptions via mail. All lead to questions about the real intentions of the FDA.
And, we can only wonder if, while seizing vital medicines, how many shipments of counterfeit drugs from bogus pharmacies might have slipped past inspectors
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