ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Minnesota Senior Federation announced today a major expansion of its nationally recognized Prescription Drug Importation Program, including new Canadian pharmacy providers, international options, lower prices and a major new program for generic drugs. The Federation’s program was the first and is the largest consumer negotiated Canadian importation program in the United States.
Based on the success of its two-year-old program, the Senior Federation has used its buying power to negotiate directly with Canadian mail order pharmacies for additional reductions in costs, a European option and an extensive savings program on generic medications. Present at the news conference were the presidents of three pharmacy systems including Andy Troszok, of Extended Care Pharmacy in Calgary, Manitoba, and the President of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA); Jeff Uhl, President of Universal Drug Store and its Canadian Pharmacy Service of Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Sean Kacsir, President of MedSave Discount Pharmacy of New Hope and Duluth, Minnesota.
A survey on a market basket of sixteen brand name prescriptions showed average savings, using Canadian and international fulfillment, of 53 percent over Twin Cities prices. This savings came through unique Senior Federation Canadian and international negotiated prices with Canadian Pharmacy Service, an exclusive service to the Senior Federation by Canadian Pharmacy Service of Winnipeg. The second greatest savings was the Senior Federation’s program with Extended Care Pharmacy of Calgary using exclusive Canadian fulfillment.
The survey also examined the best of the Medicare Approved Discount Cards on these same drugs that revealed a savings of 24 percent over Twin Cities prices, or 57 percent more than buying through Canada. Federation negotiated prices were also over 17 percent less then the prices on the State of Minnesota prescription drug importation website.
But the most dramatic savings came in a new negotiated program on generic prescription drugs using the MedSave Discount Pharmacy of New Hope and Duluth, Minnesota. Susie Ragland, Federation vice president for programs, said, “Generic drugs tend to be way over priced in Canada and generally over priced in the United States. For many people this new program may be the best way to save on prescription drug costs.”
The survey of 19 most commonly prescribed generic drugs compared the Senior Federation’s MedSave Plus program and three major local competitors. It showed savings of 43 percent to 67 percent over these pharmacies with an overall average price savings of 63 percent.
To put the Federation’s MedSave Plus negotiated program to an ultimate test, a comparison of prices with this program and the best prices using a Medicare Approved Prescription Drug Discount Card revealed an average savings of 31 percent.
“This new program announced today is created in response to the inaction of Congress to act to control prescription drug prices for all Americans,” said Eileen Iverson, president of the Minnesota Senior Federation. She continued, “In announcing this program we are delivering a new salvo in the Federation’s war on drug prices.”
Miriam Reibold, chair of the Senior Federation Prescription Drug Program committee, concluded the news conference by stating, “We had hoped that the Medicare Modernization Act with its $600 billion drug benefit would have made the need for programs like ours to go away, but it hasn’t. The new drug act delivers a grossly inadequate benefit and inadequate savings, at a huge cost to American taxpayers. The winners are the international pharmaceutical companies and the large for-profit health plans. The losers are American seniors and the American taxpayer.”
“While we would wish that our government would put the interests of Americans ahead of the greed of the drug companies by direct drug price negotiation,” said Reibold, “there is still hope that we can use the power of international markets to reduce prescription drug costs for all Americans. We salute the leadership of Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) who has just reintroduced the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2005 (H. R. 328) and Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mark Dayton (D-MN), who are introducing the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2005.
“Both bills if enacted will improve drug safety in this country, allow for importation of prescription drugs from over 20 countries by not only U.S. consumers but also U.S. wholesalers and U.S. pharmacies. It is estimated the bills will save at least $600 billion over the next ten years, more than entire cost of the Medicare Modernization Act.
“We are asking today for the complete support of this legislation from our entire congressional delegation. This coming Monday, Senior Federation leaders will deliver over 1,200 petitions to each member of our congressional delegation to support efforts to both improve the safety of the drug supply in this country and to lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans.
“With this announcement of the significant expansion and improvement of the Federation’s Prescription Drug program, we are again taking actions into our own hands. We now hope our public officials will do likewise.”
Minnesota Senior Federation
CONTACT: Peter Wyckoff, +1-651-645-0261, ext. 114,ptwyckoff@mnseniors.org , or Lee Graczyk, +1-651-645-0261, ext. 128,lgraczyk@mnseniors.org , both of Minnesota Senior Federation