Here is another good news/bad news column about the 112th Congress.

Abstract:

This study assesses the trade-off between drug safety and price savings in online drug purchases. Focusing on five brand-name prescription drugs, we acquire 370 drug samples from 41 online pharmacies and test their authenticity. Of the 41 websites, 8 are clearly US-based and verified by the National Association of...

Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration abruptly revoked the narcotics license held by the distributor Cardinal Health, preventing that firm from shipping prescription pain drugs to thousands of Florida pharmacies and hospitals. It's the latest tactic in the DEA's struggle to stem the illicit use of prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin.

Doesprescription drug advertisinginduce excess or danger inprescribing practices?

Government reimbursement programs often create cross-subsidies and other distortions that greatly complicate the task of setting reasonable and efficient reimbursement levels.

Congress should revisit the Medicare prescription drug program and insist on significant market-based reforms, not merely an ever-expanding array of benefits.

Adding a new mandatory "comparative effectiveness" test to the approval process for new drugs in the reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Prescription Drug User Fee Act constitutes a needless waste of time and money.

The trade in inferior quality medicines kills innocent patients. Perhaps 15 percent of the global drug supply outside of advanced countries is counterfeit, rising in certain markets in parts of Africa and Asia to over 50 percent. But counterfeits are not the only low-quality drugs on the market.