Illinois Governor Was Impeached For... Importing Drugs

Seriously, folks. Forget that business about selling the Obama senate seat or that Rod Blagojevich, in general, appeared to be a crude and greedy political hack (we hope we're not understating the case).

The Final Report of the Special Investigative Committee prepared for the Illinois House of Representatives cited, among other things, the fact that Rod-the-not-so-mod directed the state to import prescription drugs as a reason for impeachment.

Of all things.

The report noted a bunch of problems, starting with the fact that Rod launched the I-SaveRx program in 2004, despite being advised by the FDA that a drug importation program violated federal law.

From there, the report cited audit findings showing state inspections were not conducted by compliance investigators; none of the pharmacies listed in the program were licensed under Illinois law to dispense pharmaceuticals and none of the medicines shipped to state residents were ever tested, despite promises by Rod's office to do so in collaboration with the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy.

In skewering Rod's performance, the report called the program "a double-blind experiment" that failed. "The Committee finds that, while attempting to help individuals save on the costs of prescription drugs is laudable, it is absolutely essential that the safety of those drugs be ensured and that state and federal laws be followed. The Governor's program failed on all of these counts," the report concluded.

"The Governor violated federal law and, in fact, exposed possibly unknowing participants of the program to federal criminal sanctions. In sum, the Governor knew the program was illegal but allowed it to go forward; and then the program, once implemented, violated numerous State laws relating to safety and quality control of prescription drugs. The Committee finds that the Governor abused the power of his office."

You can imagine what some lobbyists in Washington D.C., are asking over lunch or drinks: 'So do you think anyone in the Obama administration will push for importation now?' (Our answer is here.)

Has Drug Importation Finally Fizzled?

Senators Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe issued a highly upbeat press release today on the prospects for their drug importation bill, which they say they’ll reintroduce later this month. The headline on the release claims their bill “will finally pass Congress.” The release makes a point of noting that both President-Elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain co-sponsored their bill the last time it was introduced in the Senate and claims that the new president “supports the legislation.”

But the rah-rah tone of the release is belied by a real lack of enthusiasm from the incoming administration. As a candidate for president, Obama’s health care platform initially said he supported importation, but after the drug-tainting scandals hit the press (think Chinese heparin), the campaign’s health policy advisor, Dora Hughes, made a number of appearances at which she did her best to let people know that was no longer the case. (See The Pink Sheet coverage of this topic).

And many Democrats who want to undertake major health care reform see re-importation as a small-ball distraction. New House Energy & Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman has felt that way for many years. (See here in The RPM Report.)

And yesterday in the HELP committee’s courtesy hearing with Obama’s nominee for HHS secretary, Tom Daschle, Bernie Sanders asked about his support for importation. Daschle’s response was evasive. Here it is in its entirety:

“You put your finger on the most important aspect of this effort, which is to ensure the confidence and safety of the drugs wherever they many come from. Many of our drugs today are manufactured abroad and imported as domestic product, even though they’re manufactured abroad. And so some consistent policy with regard to the manufacture and the sale of all of our drugs I think is in order. And I’d love to work with this committee and certainly with you Sen. Sanders to make sure that we come up with the best policy.”

If you can detect any hint of enthusiasm in that response, you have more sensitive ears than we do. It sounds more like a response to a question about making sure we don’t have more tainted heparin fiascos. If the incoming administration wanted to make drug importation happen, don’t you think Daschle would have said so in no uncertain terms? After all, this was a hearing full of self-congratulatory sentiment among Democrats after their resounding victory in November, not to mention warm and fuzzy feelings over the presence of Ted Kennedy, who’s in treatment for cancer, and Daschle, who was ousted from the Senate in an embarrassing defeat when he was Senate majority leader.

While the Dorgan/Snowe bill may well pass Congress, it wouldn’t be the first time an importation bill has made it through. The first time was back in 2000, when a Republican Congress passed legislation saying the HHS secretary could allow drug importation if the secretary could certify that the imported drugs would be safe and save money – and it was President Clinton’s HHS secretary, Donna Shalala, who refused to certify.