Letter to the Editor

The Jan. 14 article "S.F. joins fight to get drugs from Canada" describes an effort by San Francisco's 11 supervisors to import cheap drugs from Canada. But what they really want is to piggyback on Canadian price controls. This would be a disaster for Canadians and Americans alike.

Canadian law forces U.S. pharmaceuticals to sell at a discount. But as more Americans re-import these drugs, U.S. companies will no longer be able to create new lifesaving medicines because they cannot recapture high research-and-development costs.

U.S. companies will respond by withholding drugs from Canada. Already, companies such as Pfizer, Lilly and Glaxo Smith Kline are now limiting their Canadian shipments to historic levels. Sadly, this means fewer life-enhancing drugs for Canadians -- such as Retuxin for AIDS and Glucophage 2 for diabetes.

If San Francisco proceeds with its illegal importation plans, Canadians will be denied the benefit of new U.S. drugs. Americans will also pay a heavy price with a pharmaceutical industry that loses money and must compensate by reducing its R&D on new drugs. In this scenario, we will all be worse off.

Sally C. Pipes, Sacramento
President, Pacific Research Institute