The law allows residents to buy medicines from Internet pharmacies in Australia, Canada, UK and New Zealand; in a move that some believe could predict a trend for the rest of the country.

The bill, known as the ‘Act to Facilitate the Personal Importation of Prescription Drugs from International Mail Order Prescription Pharmacies’, was introduced in response to a ban, which was introduced in the summer of 2012, after businesses purchasing drugs from mail order pharmacies were accused of violating state law.

Some, however, have voiced safety concerns concerning the bill. In fact, a Pfizer spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that there are ‘serious safety concerns’ due to the difficulty in tracking and tracing foreign drugs bought over the Internet.

Such safety concerns are not without foundation. One of Canada’s largest Internet pharmacies, CanadaDrugs.com, has been investigated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after being connected to imports of counterfeit Avastin (bevacizumab) discovered in the US during 2012.

However, despite such concerns many, including Assistant Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson, believe that the bill will provide better access to life-saving drugs at a reasonable price. This is backed by the fact that state employees of Maine and the city of Portland, as well as one large company, claimed that before the ban was introduced they had saved some US$10 million through Internet purchases over several years.

The only problem is that FDA bans the import of prescription drugs from abroad, so it remains to be seen how long this policy will be allowed to continue.

Editor’s comment
Please feel free to share your thoughts via email or in the comments section below. What are your views on purchasing prescription medications via the Internet? Do you think that the potential savings outweigh any safety concerns? Should a single US state be allowed to make its own policy on this issue?

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