Michael Geist’s Star column this week is a great overview of the effort being made by US pharmas to lobby the Canadian government to shut down Canadian internet pharmacies. Money quote:
According to recent reports, the government is eyeing several measures including a prohibition on Canadian doctors co-signing prescriptions for U.S. patients (a pre-requisite for filling a prescription in Canada), a ban on the export of certain pharmaceutical products, and a new requirement that patients appear in person in order to have their prescription filled.
While there may be good reasons for adopting these tough measures, the Canadian government has yet to articulate them.
Instead, the Canadian and U.S. governments, supported by PhRMA, 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.
One of the most shameful aspects of this entire fiasco has been the Canadian government’s eager complicity in the scheme to scare the bejeezus out of people with blatant misinformation in order to shut down the industry. Another episode in this week’s theme of treating with suspicion any message that is being sold with fear.