Chicago Tribune | Governor to punish big drug companies:

"With Congress moving to undermine his push to buy prescription drugs from Canada, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday said he would seek to punish big drug companies that fought his initiative by making it more difficult or expensive for state workers to buy their drugs if safe alternatives are available."

Firms' medicines to be off state list

The five pharmaceutical firms impacted by the decision, which have been limiting supplies of their pills to Canada, criticized Blagojevich and said the governor was playing politics with an issue that affects public safety.

The pharmaceutical industry's trade association also suggested the governor's insistence on punishing the companies could hamper another effort he is pushing to make prescription drugs more affordable--a consumer-discount club aimed at bringing lower-priced drugs to seniors.

The club, which is set to begin operations Jan. 1, is designed to allow senior citizens to join forces with state agencies that now buy $1.8 billion in medicines, creating an entity with massive buying power that could have the clout to command price breaks. The state still must negotiate those savings with drug companies, and critics have questioned whether that effort could be impeded by Blagojevich's Canadian drug purchase campaign, which has antagonized the pharmaceutical industry.

"He should give the buying club a chance to work, and it hasn't even been implemented yet," said Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug-industry lobby.

Blagojevich said he doubted drug companies would retaliate.

"They're not going to cut their nose to spite their face when they run the risk of losing even more business in Illinois," Blagojevich said.

Though the drug buying club could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of seniors, Blagojevich's initiative unveiled Tuesday deals only with drugs for state employees and retirees, inmates in state prisons and patients at state mental facilities.

Still, it is the Democratic governor's latest effort in a battle to seize the initiative on a controversial issue with compelling appeal to voters. Because Canada has price controls on medicine, Blagojevich has said the state could save $91 million if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed Illinois to buy prescriptions north of the border. The FDA, however, has said the governor's savings claims are exaggerated and that the agency cannot certify the safety of medication coming from Canada, which is often ordered over the Internet.

Medicare reform legislation passed by Congress Tuesday did not include a provision sought by many Democrats and fought by big drug companies that would have allowed states and cities to import cheap Canadian drugs.

"It should have been in the bill," Blagojevich argued. "It's a missed opportunity."

As the debate has raged in recent months, the five companies Blagojevich has targeted chose to begin limiting drug supplies to Canada, saying it was done to prevent Canada from becoming a middleman supplying drugs to the U.S. while endangering the drug supply for Canadians.

According to Blagojevich's new plan, the state will remove from its preferred drugs list name-brand pharmaceuticals made by the firms when safe equivalents are available. The five companies--AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Wyeth--currently make up between 20 and 25 percent of the market share in Illinois.…

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0311260109nov26,1,4720596.story