College Researchers Find Pharmacists’ Cautious Support for Drug Importation

Community pharmacists are not opposed to importing drugs as a means to help lower patients’ costs — as long as those drugs are channeled through U.S. pharmacies to ensure safety and efficacy. That’s according to a recently published study co-authored by David Nau, assistant professor of Social and Administrative Sciences; Patrick McKercher, former director of the College’s Center for Medication Use, Policy, and Economics; and two researchers from the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy.

The study, “Importation of Prescription Medications: The Experiences, Opinions and Intended Behaviors of U.S. Retail Pharmacists,” appeared in the November/December edition of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA). Findings were based on a survey of 401 practicing pharmacists in Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Minnesota.

“Although the states that we used for our sample were those that share a border with Canada, have a governor in favor of importation, or have a large population of older adults, I believe the results would have been the same if we had chosen other states.” Nau says. “Community pharmacists interact with patients every day. They see the human dimension of restricted access to medications. That seems to be the major factor influencing their support of importation.”

Even so, pharmacists’ support is highly nuanced.

While pharmacists overwhelmingly supported drug importation as a compassionate measure, they did not agree on whether importation should be legalized, even for pharmacies. A clear majority of pharmacists opposed legalizing importation for consumers. Nearly 70 percent of pharmacists were willing to procure drugs from Canada, although very few were willing to procure drugs from India or China.

“Pharmacists’ support of importation as long as the imported drugs were channeled through U.S. pharmacies was not purely self-serving,” notes Nau. “Many pharmacists qualified their support on the grounds that this approach offered the best means to help to protect patients from adulterated or counterfeit medications.”

Pharmacists were not naive about the financial implications of importation, however. Approximately half of the pharmacists surveyed were concerned about job security as a result of the trend toward importation. This concern was significantly higher among pharmacy owners.

Asked what he considered a likely follow-up survey Nau offered the following:

“Numerous studies have examined consumer interest in importing, or the potential economic consequences of importation. If importation were legalized, we would like to track pharmacists’ experiences with importation, such as: problems with obtaining drugs; problems with vendors; best approaches to finding safe sources of drugs from outside the U.S.; and consumer experiences buying and using imported drugs.”

E-mail: dnau@umich.edu.