Why Is The White House Fighting Reimportation?

President Bush continues to refuse to support allowing American seniors to purchase lower-priced, FDA-approved medicines from Canada. His administration has claimed such medicines are unsafe - parrotting the drug industry's argument. But according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, even some high level pharmaceutical executives now admit just how much of a red-herring that assertion is:

Peter Rost, vice president of marketing for endocrine care at Pfizer said "During my time responsible for a region in northern Europe, I never, not once, heard the drug industry, regulatory agencies, the government or anyone express any concern related to safety. And I think it is outright derogatory to claim that Americans would not be able to handle reimportation of drugs when the rest of the world can do this...We have to speak out for the people who can't afford drugs, in favor of free trade and against a closed market."

See the full article here.