PhRMA and Local Pharmacists Litigate to Stop Maine Pharmaceutical Importation Law

As reported in the Wall Street Journal and Smart Brief: “Businesses are confused as to whether to act now or wait for the U.S. District Court to hear a legal challenge to a Maine law that authorizes the direct purchase of mail-order drugs from foreign pharmacies. The lawsuit, filed by PhRMA and Maine pharmacy groups, led the Maine State Employees Association to delay a plan to purchase drugs from foreign pharmacies. PhRMA assistant general counsel John Murphy said the law ‘puts absolutely no controls in place.’ ”

According to the Wall Street Journal: Maine’s first-in-the-nation law allowing international prescription-drug imports takes effect on October 9, 2013, but employers are mixed on whether to jump in right away or wait until a federal court rules on a legal challenge to the measure.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and Maine pharmacy groups are suing in U.S. District Court to stop the law, leading the Maine State Employees Association to hold off on a plan to buy drugs from foreign pharmacies until the court rules on a request for an injunction, said Mary Anne Turowski, the director of legislative affairs for the union.

“We’re disappointed…but hopefully it will go to court as early as November, so then we would proceed,” she said.

The Maine State Employees Association has a pending contract with the Canadian-based broker CanaRx to provide some 200 brand medications from licensed pharmacies to as many as 13,000 state employees plus their dependents. The contract could save the union’s health plan and Maine taxpayers between $3 million and $5 million a year, Ms. Turowski said.

But the City of Portland will resume filling prescriptions through CanaRx on Wednesday, as will Hardwood Products Co., a northern Maine concern which employs 440 people and makes wooden sticks for frozen treats and corn dogs.

“We’ve very happy to have it back for our employees,” said Nicole Clegg, the spokeswoman for Portland, Maine’s largest city. She said by Wednesday morning, 80 city employees already were awaiting medication through CanaRx.

Drug makers argue in a federal lawsuit filed in September that Maine’s law, which was passed in June, opens the state’s borders to potentially counterfeit drugs, putting residents at risk. Maine’s law “puts absolutely no controls in place,” said John Murphy, assistant general counsel at PhRMA. He said he expects a court hearing on the case in early November.

The law sanctions drug importations from accredited pharmacies in Canada, the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, and the state argues it will give consumers access to safe, less costly prescription drugs. In a recent court filing, Maine officials said the pharmaceutical industry “filed this lawsuit to preserve their financial interests.”