GlaxoSmithKline Threatens to Boycott Canada

Senior, Consumer Groups Threaten to Boycott GlaxoSmithKline

Provided by ConsumerAffairs.Com

January 17, 2003
Alarmed by the growing popularity of cheaper Canadian drugs among U.S. consumers, GlaxoSmithKline says it may stop supplying wholesalers and retailers in Canada unless they stop selling into the United States.

Angered by the threat, senior and consumer groups shot back with a threat to boycott GlaxoSmithKline.

"We should begin considering a boycott of the company if it goes through with this and in states with preferred drug lists, we should urge states to blacklist them from Medicaid and other public programs when there are alternatives to their drugs," said Mike Burgess, Executive Director of the New York StateWide Senior Action Council.

Burgess said that on Monday, Jan. 20, his group will ask the New York Comptroller to declare Glaxo a "bad corporate citizen" and begin consideration of divesting the state's pension funds assets in Glaxo. "We will seek to have unions and other consumer organizations join us," Burgess said.

Border-state Congressional representatives also condemned the idea.

"This seriously jeopardizes the health and well-being of thousands of Americans," Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said. Sanders noted that Canada's pharmaceutical industry was safe and well-regulated and that U.S. citizens have been purchasing drugs there for years with no problems.

Sanders said he will introduce legislation to stop Glaxo if the company does not reconsider.

Newspapers across the U.S. profiled consumers who said they would be unable to afford life-saving drugs if they could not get them from Canada.

"This is really upsetting," Joan Jurkiewicz of Valley Stream, N.Y., told Newsday.

Every three months she orders a 90-day supply of Lipitor to lower her husband's cholesterol, Accupril to control his blood pressure and Avandia for his Type 2 diabetes. The price is 40 percent less than she was paying at her local pharmacy. Avandia, for example, cost her $216 for 60 tablets, she said, compared with $372 locally.

The consequences if the Canadian supply is shut off would be grim, she said. "I would have to tell my husband he is going to die."

Canadian companies also reacted angrily to GlaxoSmithKline's threat.

Laurie Gauthier, operations manager of Prairie Supply, a wholesaler in Calgary, called it "international blackmail."

Many U.S. citizens, especially those who live near the border, have taken their prescriptions to Canada for years. Drug prices are significantly lower there because of government regulation. Some seniors groups have operated regular bus trips.

Drug companies looked the other way, until Internet sales spiked upward and storefronts selling Canadian drugs began opening in some U.S. cities.

Glaxo wrote to Canadian wholesalers and some pharmacies recently saying it would cut off their supplies unless they could demonstrate that they were not selling to U.S. citizens.

The company claims to be worried that its drugs could be harmed in transit and that Americans buying drugs in Canada were not being properly supervised by their doctors.