Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to speak to Bill C-378.
I would like to bring to hon. members' attention the key specific facts to consider with respect to Bill C-378, especially with events that are occurring in the U.S. Congress. In doing so, I wish to draw attention to the U.S. political environment and provide further insight on why U.S. developments are unlikely to affect our drug supply.
I believe that one of the reasons this bill was introduced was to address concerns over potential American legislation to allow the importation of drugs into the U.S.A. from Canada. There are concerns that such legislation would cause drug shortages here in Canada. However, it is premature and overly pessimistic to draw such conclusions at this time. This bill is the wrong response to a problem that does not currently, and may never, exist. I believe that any concern with potential impacts on the Canadian drug supply need to be balanced with a calm assessment of the situation.
I do not have to remind hon. members that 2008 is a major election year in the U.S. While the race for the White House receives the majority of the media attention, most members of Congress are also facing re-election.
As we are all no doubt aware, American legislators sponsor a number of bills in Congress to increase their profile before election time. Understandably, this activity increases closer to the election date. While we can expect to see more U.S. legislative activity in the coming months, this is unlikely to lead to an increased likelihood of bills being passed.
Most bills introduced in Congress do not make it into law. They die at committee level or are amended so many times that they become too unpopular to pass. Even if they are passed by one chamber of Congress, they could be defeated by the other chamber. Also, a bill passed by Congress will not be effective unless the executive branch appropriately directs the U.S. public service on how it should be interpreted.
There is no doubt that high prescription drug prices are a major political issue in the United States. Some proponents of the leading proposal to legalize imports have been open in stating that this is as much a pressure tactic to reduce U.S. domestic drug prices as about importation.
One way they are seeking to reduce domestic drug prices is by pressing for federal negotiation with manufacturers over the prices paid by the federal department of health and human services for those drugs covered by medicare.
Existing U.S. law prohibits medicare price negotiations. But a bill to require the U.S. government to negotiate medicare drug prices was passed in the House of Representatives with significant bipartisan support. While the Senate finance committee voted in favour of this bill, there was not enough support for this version to get passed in the full Senate.
For leading congressional Democrats as well as a number of Republicans, seeking the ability to negotiate prices for medicare drugs is a much higher priority than legalizing drug imports. Democrats and Republicans supporting medicare price negotiations could modify their bill or attach its language to another bill in order to further its progress through Congress.
The leading drug import bill before Congress, the Dorgan-Snowe bill, is stalled at the Senate committee level. The bill's sponsors have tried to go around the Senate committee by proposing amendments that would piggyback their drug importation bill onto another bill meant to overhaul the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Food and Drug Administration bill was passed by the Senate with the drug importation provisions. However, the Senate added a poison pill amendment, giving the U.S. administration the power to prevent drug imports until they certify that they are safe, and that such importation could lead to drug savings.
Therefore, it is unknown at this time if the Dorgan-Snowe bill would have any effect even if it became law. We are a long way from a bill legalizing bulk imports being approved by the White House without such a poison pill being included.
Finally, even if the Dorgan-Snowe bill were enacted, and the U.S. administration certified drug safety and cost savings, it would take 12 months before any bulk imports could occur. As such, there would be at least a year for this government to prepare for any concern with the potential impact of bulk exports. But given the current U.S. administration's strong reluctance to take action that would facilitate drug imports from other markets, it is highly unlikely that the Dorgan-Snowe provisions will ever, and I repeat ever, come into effect.
In the unlikely event that those provisions were brought into force, it should be noted that they would provide for imports from a number of countries, not just Canada. As such, the impact of any import legalization would be distributed over many countries. Eligible countries for drug imports would include many of the European Union countries, as well as Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Again, drug imports from other countries such as Canada are neither a realistic nor a sustainable solution. U.S. federal legislators realize this and are using such legislation for their own political gain.
Regardless of the U.S. situation, Bill C-378 would not prohibit drug exports to the U.S. by foot traffic or Internet pharmacies, nor by drug manufacturers. If the member for St. Paul's is so concerned with the Canadian drug supply, I fail to see why she would want to allow such practices to continue by specifically exempting them from this bill.
As I have indicated, it is important to put the situation south of the border in perspective. That said, it is also appropriate and prudent for the government to continue to monitor the situation with respect to cross-border drug sales and to be prepared to act in a measured fashion if and when such action is indicated. However, we have not arrived at that point, and we are unlikely to get there anytime soon.
