Gov. Jim Doyle announced today the State of Illinois will join in helping to expand Wisconsin's online prescription drug purchasing program.
The program will allow Wisconsinites to search for their prescriptions online and find the best deal available from accredited pharmacies in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Doyle said. By using this program, residents of Illinois and Wisconsin will be able to save 30 to 60 percent off what they would pay in the United States for identical drugs.
Doyle explained that the plan will help people struggling with soaring prescription drug costs in the short term and hopefully force American pharmaceuticals to lower prices.
\I would prefer to see real competition in the U.S."" Doyle said.
When asked about the opposition to the plan from the Federal Food and Drug Administration, Doyle said that the foreign firms are safe and the FDA's response is merely an attempt to protect the profits of American corporations at the expense of the American people.
""If [the FDA] was really on our side then it would simply go to these pharmacies and make the same determination as the people in Illinois and the people of Wisconsin have made,"" Doyle said.
The governor stressed the foreign pharmacies have been inspected by health officials from both states in the same way as domestic pharmacies. According to Doyle, the system will allow for safe acquisition of drugs that hundreds of thousands are already obtaining from abroad on their own.
