H.R. 2427, Pharmaceutical Market Access Act

In July 2003, a bipartisan coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow Americans to buy reimported prescription drugs at the same prices as other countries. The provisions below are now the subject of Congressional negotiations as the final Medicare bill is drafted by a conference committee.

Market Access: Under the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act, the FDA must design and implement a system to grant individuals, pharmacists and wholesalers in America access to FDA-approved drugs from FDA-approved facilities in industrialized nations abroad.

Market Access: Those countries are limited to: the European Union, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Lichtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and South Africa. Note : Mexico is NOT included.

Safety: The Pharmaceutical Market Access Act strengthens America's commitment to maintaining the safest pharmaceutical drug market in the world. This bill requires all prescription drugs produced at home and abroad to use counterfeit-resistant packaging, similar to the technology used by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. If the technology is good enough to secure U.S. currency, it's good enough to secure our pharmaceutical chain-of-custody.

Safety: The Pharmaceutical Market Access Act contains language written by the legal team at FDA that requires wholesalers to test each pharmaceutical shipment, unless the packaging uses counterfeit-resistant technology . The FDA's strict language was written to provide for the safety of imported pharmaceuticals from anywhere in the world.

Safety: The Pharmaceutical Market Access Act strictly prohibits anyone from importing pharmaceutical narcotics, such as OxyContin.

Safety: The Pharmaceutical Market Access Act requires the FDA to implement this program within 180 days of enactment. This frees Americans from an environment where patients forgo pharmaceutical treatments, at risk to their own health, because their prescriptions are too expensive.