A federal judge has overturned a Maine law that allows consumers to purchase inexpensive prescription drugs from international online pharmacies. Maine pharmacy and retail groups fiercely opposed the 2013 law and challenged its legality in court. Their victory puts to rest a year-and-a-half-long battle. But the Maine Attorney General's Office has yet to decide whether to appeal.
Maine's 2013 law was the first of its kind in the U.S. It allowed licensed retail pharmacies in Canada, the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand to export prescription drugs to Maine residents. The problem, says Curtis Picard of the Retail Association of Maine, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is that it violated federal law.
"The contention of our lawsuit was that the federal government regulates what can and cannot come into the United States," Picard says. "There's a lot of reasons for that. From the beginning, we've said, this law is unconstitutional. "
Federal District Court Judge Nancy Torresen agreed. In a decision issued Monday, Torresen concluded that federal law preempts state law when it comes to prescription drug imports. Federal law places strict limits on drug imports. The only potential door is a Medicaid law that allows pharmacists and wholesalers to import prescription drugs from Canada when the Secretary of Health and Human Services certifies it would be safe and cost-effective. But no secretary has done so.
"We are very relieved with Judge Torresen's decision," says Dr. Kenneth McCall, past president of the Maine Pharmacy Association, another plaintiff in the case. "It's a particularly important issue because we have a secure drug supply system in the United States which makes certain that products that people take for their health are safe and effective, that they're not misbranded or adulterated, that they're not substandard."
But Troy Jackson, a former Democratic state senator who sponsored Maine's drug importation bill, says the law specifically included high safety standards by only allowing drugs import from so-called Tier 1 countries. "Those countries," Jackson says, "are considered as safe as U.S. standards by the FDA."
Jackson says he's reached out to Attorney General Janet Mills, a defendant in the case, to push the issue. The Attorney General's Office issued a statement after the ruling, saying it will review the decision and decide on next steps, and that Congress and the FDA should reexamine their policy towards importation of prescription drugs.
But John Murphy, the assistant general counsel of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, says opening the door to unregulated or foreign pharmacies is a a dangerous idea. "A cheap drug that's a fake drug is probably worse for a patient than any drug they get here in the United States," Murphy says, "because if it doesn't do what it portends to do or is adulterated in some way, and the patient has a reaction or gets even sicker, the costs associated with that are almost incalculable."
Kenneth McCall of the Maine Pharmacy Association says, as a pharmacist, he sees first hand that cost is an issue for consumers - it's just that Maine's drug importation law is not the way to solve it. "I think we can continue to look for better options," he says.
Meanwhile, Troy Jackson, who is now a salesperson for the GreatBritishDrugStore.com, may soon be out of a job. The online pharmacy opened an office in Portland last fall in response to the Maine's law to offer cheap prescription drugs from U.K. pharmacies. But with the overturning of the state's law, its fate in Maine is now uncertain.
