The Senate on Tuesday voted 51-48 on amendment sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to promote the importation of prescription drugs, falling far short of the 60 votes needed to pass.

News coverage focused on the amendment’s implications for passage of the Senate health care bill and the lobbying prowess of the pharmaceutical industry, but the amendment deserved to fail on its merits. As the NAM’s “Key Vote” letter to the Senate argued:

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 10 percent of medicines available globally are counterfeit. A November 2009 INTERPOL/WHO operation involving 24 countries found that 751 web sites were engaged in illegal activity, including offering controlled or prescription only drugs. We fear that drug importation would expose consumers to dangerous counterfeit or adulterated medications, undermining the quality and safety of prescription drugs.

We are also concerned with provisions in the amendment that would impose “forced sale” mandates on contracts between private companies and their customers/suppliers. In effect, it would bar pharmaceutical companies from deciding who they can sell their products to in specific countries, the quantity of the product that they will sell to a given buyer, the price terms of the sale, and the terms regarding export of the product, thereby abrogating their contract and patent rights.

• Kaiser Health News, “Amendment To Allow Drug Importation Fails In Senate”
• Wall Street Journal (blog), “Importing Drugs Is Out; Mining Docs’ Prescriptions Is (Still) In”

From an author who embraces the attack on property rights by the government of Rafael Correa, a news release, “Ecuador president Correa to override drug patents in order to provide affordable medication“:

(NaturalNews) The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, announced Sunday that he planned to override a number of pharmaceutical patents in order to provide more affordable medicines to the People of Ecuador. In a statement, Correa explained that access to medicine is a “human right” and that he intends to seek “compulsory licenses” to acquire medications considered indispensible.

Under current World Trade Organization rules, countries have the right to seek such “compulsory licenses” that override traditional patent rights. Current WTO rules require that such countries negotiate with the patent owners to determine fair compensation.

This action by Correa joins Ecuador’s recent declaration that it would not honor the illegitimate debt that had been placed on the country by foreign banks (under previous administrations). This bold move allowed Ecuador to renegotiate its debt for roughly 30 cents on the dollar. Much of that debt was considered “predatory debt” by academics who understand the way the World Bank and other first-world banking interests attempt to place debt burdens on many smaller nations as a tactic for exerting long-term influence over their economies.

Right. And the Barbary Pirates had legitimate grievances against the United States, too.

See also the AP story, “Ecuador pres: National labs to ignore drug patents.”

Also, on September 25, major U.S. business groups sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways & Means Committee urging Congress not to reward Ecuador and Bolivia for undermining rule of law by renewing Andean trade preferences for those countries. The letter from Business Roundtable, Emergency Committee for American Trade, National Association of Manufacturer, National Foreign Trade Council, United States Council for International Business, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce is available here.