NACDS and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) sent a letter to President Donald Trump and administration officials this week, urging them “to refrain from endorsing pending legislative proposals that would allow for broad personal and commercial importation of non-[Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] approved prescription drugs.”
The letter noted importation’s risks associated with counterfeit drugs, and specifically the risk of undermining the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, which was enacted in 2013. NACDS and APhA highlighted extensive documentation of concerns expressed by the FDA and by Canadian authorities.
“Throughout the past 15 years, through speeches, testimony, letters and other consumer resources, FDA has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the risk to patient safety posed by importation of non-FDA approved drugs,” the letter said.
In addition, NACDS and APhA described the extent to which importation would detract from value-based care. “Value-based care models and other efforts to produce savings and promote quality, such as outcomes-based reimbursement, will be more difficult to measure and optimize if patients are allowed to receive care outside the model’s mechanisms to drive results,” they said.
Further, NACDS and APhA warned that importation would run contrary to the pharmacist-patient relationship, which plays a significant role in helping patients take medications correctly.
