Obama’s U.S. budget supports drug import plan

U.S. President Barack Obama’s budget backs a plan to allow people to buy cheaper medicines from other countries, which typically offer lower prices than the United States.

“The Budget supports the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) new efforts to allow Americans to buy safe and effective drugs from other countries,” said the plan, released on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what new efforts the FDA was taking to allow such importation, and an agency spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The FDA under the Bush administration opposed such a plan.

Obama initially supported the idea during his presidential campaign, but his advisers expressed some caution when problems surfaced with batches of the blood thinner heparin that were made with tainted ingredients from China.

Countries such as Canada can sell medicines for less because their governments help control prices.

Drugmakers and other critics have said allowing Americans to directly buy medicines from overseas would deprive the industry of funds needed to research new therapies and will stifle innovation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)