Maine takes step toward allowing Canadian prescription drug imports

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Senate unanimously advanced a package of bills on Tuesday aimed at reducing prescription drug prices, including a Canadian drug importation program modeled on a first-in-the-nation Vermont law that would need federal approval.

The legislative push is led by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and endorsed by AARP Maine. It looks to lower drug prices in the nation’s oldest state by median age, where people have often made bus trips to neighboring Canada for access to price-controlled prescription drugs that have been the subject of action in Maine over the past decade.

Four related bills passed the Senate unanimously on Tuesday and face further action in both chambers. They would begin a Canadian drug importation program subject to federal approval, hold pharmacy benefit managers to higher standards, create a board to set drug price targets for public entities, and require more data on costs of drug production, marketing and prices.

The U.S. spends more money per capita on prescription drugs than any other high-income country in the world. Americans spent $1,443 per capita on prescriptions in 2016, which was roughly twice as much as other high-income countries on average, according to a study published last year in the American Medical Association’s journal.

Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/06/11/politics/maine-takes-step-toward-allowing-canadian-prescription-drug-imports/