There is a bill before congress, introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), to legalize the re-importation of U.S. pharmaceuticals back into the United States, from Canada and other countries.
At first glance, you would think that drug re-importation is ok. There is something intuitively wrong with a law preventing you from buying drugs in Canada. If that law was repealed, drug companies wouldn't like it, but they could respond by limiting Canadian supply to an amount that Canada might actually use. Surely Canada wouldn't sell us drugs that they need, and that were in short supply.
Turns out, there is a problem with that sceranio, because we have trade agreements that punish US drug companies for failure to supply foreign countries with whatever drug amounts they request. The punishment is that foreign countries can make knock-off copies of US-patented drugs without being prosecuted under US patent law.
If re-importation is made legal, drug companies would likely respond by freezing supply to Canada and other countries, even though it would cause them to give up patent protection in those countries. Dorgan apparently has anticipated this, because his bill also would force drug companies to provide unlimited supply to foreign countries, like it or not! In effect, the Dorgan bill would import foreign price controls into the US.
My market ethic tells me that US consumers should have the right to buy from anywhere. US drug companies should have the right to withhold product from anyone. US should not honor patents of countries who do not honor ours. If the Dorgan bill passes as presently conceived, it will destroy the US pharmaceutical industry. Would Mrs. Dorgan please tell her son the story about the golden goose?