Duncan to sue feds over drug importation denial

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan plans to sue the federal government after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration denied the county’s request for a waiver to allow county employees to buy prescription drugs from Canada.

‘‘We’ll be filing a lawsuit in federal court sometime in the next few weeks,” said David S. Weaver, a spokesman for Duncan.

The Montgomery County Council voted 6-2 on Nov. 1 to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada so county workers and retirees could save money.

Duncan (D) sought a federal waiver for the county program, but the FDA notified the county Nov. 8 that the request was denied.

Without no federal waiver, Duncan put the county’s prescription drug plan on hold while the county appeals to overturn the FDA’s denial.

‘‘I’m disappointed, but not surprised, that the Bush administration would deny hard working people access to cheaper prescription medications,” Duncan said in a statement. ‘‘It is fundamentally unfair that people living in Canada pay a fraction of what Americans pay for the same prescription medications.”

Duncan intends to allow the council’s prescription drug bill to become law without his signature, but he will not ask any county employee to run the program, according to a statement from his office.

Council President Thomas E. Perez, however, said Duncan should go ahead and implement the drug plan because employees want cheaper medications and the FDA has not brought any charges or lawsuits against the 30 other jurisdictions that have passed similar measures.

‘‘When we enacted a smoking ban, did we go into court and ask permission? No, we did it,” said Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park. ‘‘The FDA says it’s illegal, but the FDA is caught up in a lot of politics right now and politics has infected science.”

The FDA opposes the council’s plan, which has been in the works for 18 months.

‘‘The FDA is concerned that you cannot ensure that medicines imported by foreign countries abide by similar safety guidelines to those in this country,” Thomas J. McGinnis, the FDA’s director of pharmacy affairs, told the council before the Nov. 1 vote.

The county is not on a quixotic quest in taking on the federal government, Weaver said.

‘‘We believe that it was Congress’s intention to allow for the re-importation of Canadian drugs,” he said. ‘‘And we believe that this appeal does have a chance of succeeding.”

Weaver said he did not know how much the case would cost the county in legal fees.

‘‘I do know it costs Montgomery County residents hundreds of thousands if not millions each year for their prescription drugs than their counterparts in Canada,” he said.