Drug exec backs candidate's import plan
HELENA, Montana (AP) -- A pharmaceutical company executive on Tuesday defended a proposal by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brian Schweitzer to buck federal law and launch a state program allowing U.S. prescription drugs to be imported from Canada.
Peter Rost, a Pfizer Inc. vice president of marketing for growth hormone products, said critics who claim such plans are unsafe are wrong.
"The truth is that reimportation had been done safely within Europe for over 20 years and can be done safely here right now," he said at a news conference organized by Schweitzer in Billings.
He assailed Schweitzer's Republican opponent Bob Brown for questioning the safety of allowing drugs to be imported from Canada, calling it "scare tactics."
Brown, in a prepared statement, said he does not oppose the idea of permitting lower-priced, American-made medicine to be purchased from Canadian suppliers, but objects to a candidate advocating actions contrary to federal law.
"It is not responsible to promote ideas that violate federal law," he said, repeating a phrase he has used frequently regarding Schweitzer's plan: "Lawlessness is not leadership."
Federal law forbids importation of drugs unless the secretary of Health and Human Services certifies them as safe.
But Schweitzer said governors of 11 states are promoting importation programs despite the ban.
Illinois launched its program in August.
He criticized Brown for saying in a Missoula debate that the matter of drug importation is "really not a relevant issue now."
"All we have gotten from state government is excuses, obstruction and inaction," Schweitzer said.
Brown's remark in the debate was in reference to Schweitzer pushing for access to drugs from Canada when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000. He said the issue made more sense then because Schweitzer, as a U.S. senator, would have been able to do something about the federal ban.
Brown also said then he would be willing to lobby Congress to change the law, but unwilling to break it.
Schweitzer said he would do that, but does not want to delay state action waiting for lawmakers to act.
Rost's appearance in Montana was an attempt to buttress what has become a major issue for Schweitzer in the governor's race. Rost's comments echoed those he has been making over the past two weeks to advocate opening U.S. borders to prescription drugs.
Pfizer is the world's largest drug maker.
