Peter Rost, M.D., who has been a Pfizer marketing executive for two decades, argues against his employer’s opposition to free trade in prescription drugs;

What I know about importation of drugs is based upon my experience in marketing pharmaceuticals in the United States and Europe for two decades. Importation or parallel trade of drugs has been done safely within Europe for over 20 years.

A few years back I was responsible for a region in Northern Europe. We had lots of drugs coming into my area through parallel traders. I countered by lowering some of my own prices and in the process doubled sales in my region in just two years.

In Europe, importers supply only authorized wholesalers or registered pharmacies; they do not sell to the public. So the chain remains closed. Authorized drugs are purchased from authorized wholesalers in one European Union country and sold to authorized distributors in another union country. This is the kind of system we should put in place in the United States.
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Every day Americans die because they can’t afford life-saving drugs. Every day Americans die because Congress wants to protect the profits of giant drug corporations, half of the top 10 of which are French, British and Swiss conglomerates.