The Washington Times, March 4, 2004

In their Feb. 24 Commentary column, David Henderson and Charley Hooper make a fuzzy free-market argument that re-importing drugs from Canada could be a "small boon" to Americans "by causing the Canadian government to relent from its price-control policy" ["Hidden drug-reimport potential"]. In fact, they argue, "if many people in the United States are allowed to buy [drugs] from Canada, drug companies will certainly notice." Consequently, "there is only one way not to have [U.S. companies'] prices seriously undercut: They will choose to limit supplies to Canada." Some companies already are doing this by limiting supplies to historic levels.

Mr. Henderson and Mr. Hooper are sorely confused. Despite their good intentions, they have ignored the crux of the problem - namely, patent theft.

The Canadian government has promised to retaliate if U.S. companies refuse to sell drugs to Canada by allowing generic companies to steal American patents and reproduce the drugs for a lower price.

By threatening to violate U.S. patents, the Canadian government routinely blackmails American companies into selling to Canada at price-controlled below-market rates. This is not a matter of free-market economics; it's a matter of theft - plain and simple.

Sally C. Pipes is president and CEO of the California-based Pacific Research Institute. She can be reached at spipes@pacificresearch.org.