Montgomery County might appeal a decision by a federal judge Tuesday to throw out a lawsuit it filed against U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt seeking to pursue reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 23 after the Food and Drug Administration in 2005 decided not to issue the county a waiver allowing it to import drugs from the Canada because of their lower cost.
“It is fundamentally unfair that people living in Canada pay a fraction of what Americans pay for the same prescription drugs,” County Executive Doug Duncan said at the time.
The county argued that the FDA’s denial was arbitrary because FDA permits numerous other state and local governments to operate Canadian drug importation programs.
But U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams Jr. disagreed.
“Should Montgomery County, or others in a similar position, wish to compel greater change in prescription drug importation policy, it is with Congress and the language of the [Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003] that they must take issue, and not with the Secretary’s actions, which are in compliance with the Act,” Williams wrote.
County officials are reviewing their options, spokeswoman Donna Bigler said.
County Council Member Tom Perez, D-Dist. 5, has been a lead supporter of importing drugs from Canada, campaigning on the issue in his run for the State’s Attorney’s seat. But on this case, he sided with the judge.
“I would have thrown that suit out if I were that judge, too,” Perez said. “You don’t need a permission slip to put a program in place. The legality will be decided if and only if the federal government goes to court with one of the 25 jurisdictions that already has the program in place.”
