PROVO — Support from Congress is looking likely for a Utah County company that helps people get prescription drugs from Canada.
Meds Direct Plus had come under fire with Utah licensing officials for putting patients in contact with Canadian doctors and pharmacies, but received a Congressional thumbs-up Friday when the Senate approved a Canadian drug amendment to the proposed Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill.
The Republican-backed amendment, which would allow American pharmacists to purchase prescription medicines in Canada and resell them in the United States, calls for a one-year pilot program to import drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Meds Direct Plus owner Eric VanBrakel has gone to great lengths to establish that his business is not a pharmacy — and therefore exempt from licensing regulation — but realizes the necessity of working with them, should the bill pass.
"If the bill passes — and I use the word if," VanBrakel said, "we would just switch our focus from the patient to the pharmacy. We would gladly work with pharmacies to help them get Canadian drugs."
Despite positive response, local agencies continue to express concern.
The Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing issued a statement last week confirming an ongoing investigation of companies that might be selling or dispensing prescription drugs without a pharmaceutical license.
The issue came to a boil June 2 after Larry Gooch of the Utah Department of Commerce came to the American Fork office at 46 W. Main. He issued a cease-and-desist order.
That incident, VanBrakel claims, ended with Gooch shoving him. American Fork police investigated but are not further pursuing the allegation.
The company has another office at 3212 N. University Ave. in Provo.
DOPL Director Craig Jackson would not confirm or deny an investigation against Meds Direct Plus.
"The problem is that we have a law in Utah that any mail-order pharmacy shipping drugs needs to be licensed in the state," Jackson said. "Any Canadian pharmacy that ships to a patient in Utah is doing so illegally under the Pharmacy Practice Act."
Jackson acknowledges the economical advantage of purchasing Canadian drugs — which retail at dramatically lower prices thanks to Canadian drug laws — but worries about the distance factor.
"We have no oversight to any Canadian pharmacy. We have no idea if (the medicine) is stored properly, outdated, counterfeited." Jackson said, adding that Canadian doctors never meet their American patients.
"What if that doctor made a mistake? What if he couldn't read the prescription right?" Jackson asked. "What he's really doing is selling his signature for a price."
Dave Stitcher, a spokesperson for Meds Direct Plus, says that Canadian drugs are just as reliable as their American counterparts, and usually manufactured in the same place. He claims political conflicts are the real issue, pointing out that eight of the 12 experts on the bill's Senate committee have pharmaceutical ties.
"The whole argument of safety is all smoke and mirrors."
That issue is up for debate in Congress, where both the Senate and House of Representatives are expected to vote on the bill, including the amendment, later this week. Even if the bill passes in its entirety, Jackson cautions potential customers of the inherent dangers with mail-order medicine.
"Anybody getting drugs from a foreign country is playing Russian roulette with their health."
E-MAIL: lsanderson@desnews.com