Madam Chair, it is a pleasure and an honour for me to take part in the debate this evening, because I believe that this matter is extremely important to all Canadians.
I would like to begin by talking a little bit about the context of this debate on cross-border Internet drugs. Over a year ago, when he was in Boston, the Minister of Health stated that “Canada cannot be the drugstore for the United States”. He also stated that Canada could not “meet the prescription drug needs of approximately 280 million Americans without putting our own Canadian supply at risk”.
The government's June 29 announcement to conduct consultations signalled an important commitment to putting Canadians first when it comes to making available the necessary supply of prescription drugs. Canadians should be concerned about this, because allowing bulk exports is a model that is simply unsustainable here in Canada.
For example, Canada's research based pharmaceutical companies are mandated to supply Canadian patients with the necessary supply of products to meet their needs, and not, quite frankly, to oversupply the Canadian market so that a few what I would call profit-hungry players can engage in arbitrage and ship to the United States or to any other jurisdiction products that are price controlled in Canada and meant for Canadians.
Simply stated, Canadian medicines are for Canadian patients first. I believe that this must be the foundation of the discussion in the House this evening.
There is a concern surrounding this practice among members of Canada's health care community. For example, the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada, to name but a few, are part of the health care community that has expressed serious concerns about the growth of the Internet drug pharmacies in Canada, pharmacies that are shipping drugs outside of Canada, drugs that are made for the Canadian market and price controlled for the Canadian market, drugs made and price controlled for Canadians.
Let us look at just one other jurisdiction, that of the U.S. Let us look at the environment there and what impact it could have on Canada. While there are varying estimates of the volume of prescription drugs that has been diverted over the last several years, the Minister of Health himself estimated the volume of these cross-border sales of prescription drugs at approximately $1.5 billion per year. Earlier estimates were much lower. This demonstrates that the shipments continue to grow.
It is also noteworthy that, while these sales are occurring, the practice in the United States is illegal. However, there continues to be a growing political pressure at the state level and the municipal level in the United States to do two things.
The first is to expand programs that allow Americans to buy Canadian, even though under federal law in the United States the practice remains illegal. The second is to pass resolutions or laws that call on Washington to legalize these imports.
The population of American state jurisdictions with “buy Canada” programs in place already exceeds that of Canada. This makes the threat of large scale importation into the United States or exportation out of Canada a reality.
Legislation in the United States to legalize imports from Canada has been introduced. The passage of just one of these laws would be expected to dramatically increase the flow of drugs to the south of our border.
Let me give members an example. At last count, some 25 states, representing 145 million Americans, are at some stage of implementing a drug import program. Ten American states already have legislation for a drug import program in place. That puts our drug supply for Canadians at serious risk.
Furthermore, the possibility of U.S. legalization of bulk imports poses an unacceptable risk to our continuing supply of safe, affordable prescription drugs for Canadians. In my view, a proactive, responsive stance on the part of the Canadian government is a matter of responsible, good governance.
I would like to come back to the environment in the United States. A study was conducted by Dr. Marv Shepherd, who is the director of the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Studies at the University of Texas. He will be participating in a newsmaker breakfast this week at the Press Club in Ottawa on this very subject. His study found that if all United States residents were to buy their drugs from Canada, the Canadian supply would dry up in approximately 38 days.
The Canadian pharmaceutical industry develops, manufactures and distributes medicines predicated on meeting the needs of Canadian patients and the Canadian market. Forecasting is done to take into account the size of the population to be served and the prevalence of the disease or condition to be treated. Given that one country importing supply from another country reduces the inventory available for that country to meet its own forecasted domestic patient needs, aside from cross-border trade of prescription drugs being detrimental from a public policy perspective, it is virtually impossible to do.
Let us take the Tamiflu example. Just last week, when Roche Canada took the unprecedented step of suspending sales of Tamiflu to the Canadian market, there were reports that Internet pharmacies in Canada were busy filling foreign prescriptions at a significant profit. One B.C. pharmacy alone was reportedly filling 400 orders a day for the United States. That is a significant number, when according to the Canadian Pharmacists Association only 4,000 Canadians received the drug in September. Another Internet pharmacy in Montreal, where I live, issued news releases promoting to U.S. customers its Tamiflu stocks.
The Canadian Pharmacists Association reacted to the Tamiflu incident by saying that the government should have acted to protect the country's supply of drugs. Again, when supply gets siphoned off to the United States then it is Canadians who come up short. The situation of Tamiflu is a perfect example of the types of scenarios Canadian patients will face if our government continues to allow drugs to be diverted to the United States.
What is the Canadian opinion on this issue? A public opinion poll commissioned by the Ontario Pharmacists' Association found that some 83% of those surveyed agreed or somewhat agreed that the federal government should take immediate action prior to the implementation of U.S. importation laws in order to protect Canada's drug supply. The same survey found that 76% said that it was unacceptable or somewhat unacceptable for Congress to plan for mass importations of Canadian medicines without consulting the Canadian government.
What are the policy options? The Minister of Health has put forth some important public policy solutions to address the issue of cross-border trade, and in my view, this is noteworthy progress. However, we have to keep in mind that while the government considers its options, the United States continues its movement toward permitting the bulk importation of Canadian products. Once allowed, wholesalers looking to profit from larger, more lucrative markets to the south will act rapidly to divert the product.
While I herald the decision of the Canadian government and our Minister of Health, with the three-prong process of measures that he has put into place, I believe that we have to act even more firmly. I believe that our government should make all exports of pharmaceuticals subject to a permit requirement by adding them to a list of products prohibited for export.
I also believe that wholesalers should not be granted permits to export in bulk a product that was produced for the Canadian market, based on the forecast of the needs of Canadian patients and was meant for Canadian patients. I believe that would prevent wholesalers from exploiting the arbitrage opportunities created by our price control system.
I also believe that legitimate exports of pharmaceuticals by innovative and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers and exports by and to Canadians living abroad would continue as permitted.
I support innovation in Canada. I support job creation in Canada, but I do not support job creation that is based on putting the health of Canadian patients in danger.