What Should Prescribers and Policy Makers Know About US Drug Importation?

In the AMA Journal of Ethics, senior manager Nisha Quasba and director Elliot Vice discuss key points to consider, especially from a policy perspective, when weighing imported medicines’ perceived affordability and accessibility against additional resource expenditure needed to assure sufficient regulatory oversight and equitable distribution and to mitigate potential risks of harm to patients.

Quasba and Vice note how drug importation raises several ethical and safety concerns relevant to prescribers and policy makers considering the costs and benefits of international medicine importation. The authors also offer insight to federal drug importation regulation, counterfeit drug risks and online pharmacies.