Canadian Drugs, Banned by FDA, Are Safe as Those Sold in U.S.

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Canadian Drugs, Banned by FDA, Are Safe as Those Sold in U.S.

Prescription medicines from Canada, banned from the U.S., are at least as safe as those sold by American drugstores, according to a Harvard University professor, state regulators and Canadian authorities.

Inspections and anti-counterfeiting measures in Canada and other industrialized countries are just as effective as U.S. systems, said Jerry Avorn, a Harvard Medical School drug safety specialist. Carmen Catizone, president of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a state regulators' group, rates U.S. and Canadian drugs as equally safe.

Americans bought more than $1 billion in medicines last year from Canada, where government regulations hold prices as much as 70 percent lower than in the U.S.

Drugs sold in Canada come from many of the same factories that supply the U.S.

They're the very same pills coming down the chute into identical bottles,'' said Gary Passmore, staff director of the Congress of California Seniors advocacy group.

Wholesalers in Europe have used international trade in prescription drugs to save consumers money for more than 20 years.

Flu vaccine is available in Canada at about $2 a dose, compared with $8 to $9 in the U.S.