The Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation released the following statement on Dr. Robert Califf’s nomination to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ahead of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s nomination hearing.
“We call on Dr. Califf to deliver an immediate, bipartisan source of safe and affordable medicines: allowing Americans to import for personal use from licensed Canadian pharmacies,” said Jack Pfeiffer executive director of the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation. “Dr. Califf has strong public support to act swiftly on this commonsense policy.”
At the FDA, Califf could play a major role in delivering Americans access to lower prescription drugs costs. Nearly 80 percent of the public say it should be legal for Americans to purchase drugs from Canada according to a recent POLITICO/Harvard survey, Democrats, Republicans and Independents all show similarly high support for importation reports the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Addressing prescription drug prices has been a major priority for President Biden, Republicans and Democrats. During the presidential campaign, Biden pledged to take action to lower prescription drug costs by pursuing prescription importation.
In July, Biden signed an executive order encouraging states and tribal governments to apply for U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) approval for wholesale importation of prescription drugs from Canadian sellers.
“We hope that Dr. Califf’s past ties to pharmaceutical companies do not cloud fair consideration of allowing importation of safe and affordable medicines from licensed Canadian pharmacies. Americans should not have to choose between putting food on their tables and affording their life-saving medicines. CPPI strongly encourages Dr. Califf to support importation of prescription drugs for personal use.”