Internet Pharmacies - New U.S. Legislation Puts The Issue Back Into The Spotlight

Introduction

Over the last four years the issue of "internet pharmacy" and the import of pharmaceutical drugs into the United States from Canada has become a very contentious political and legal subject. According to IMS Health Incorporated data, the annual total value of sales to the United States through the 278 confirmed or suspected Canadian based Internet pharmacies, identified as of June 2005, was estimated at (CDN) $507 million.¹ Early in 2005, a Health Canada official testifying before a committee of the House of Commons stated that there were, at that time, about (CDN) $1.35 billion worth of cross-border retail sales into the United States. Of these sales, approximately $840 million were via Internet pharmacies, with the rest coming from so-called foot traffic. Trans-border drug sales represent eight percent of a $16 billion prescription market in Canada, but less than 0.5 per cent of the U.S. market of some $300 billion.²