Last week, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke at The Heritage Foundation about the importance of free markets in our healthcare system. Sec. Azar touched on some of the positive initiatives the Trump administration has spearheaded to rollback government regulation, improve choice and competition, and generally bring down prices for American.

However, Sec. Azar also discussed a recently convened FDA working group to investigate whether or not importing drugs from other countries could help bring down costs.

There is certainly more we can do to bring down the cost of prescription drugs – but importing drugs from other countries is not the solution. In fact, almost every year our nation has examined similar proposals, always concluding importation is not a viable solution and, worse, would threaten the safety of our drug supply chain.

The United States has a secure and highly-regulated pharmaceutical production industry. From ingredient provenance to production facilities and distribution, every step in the manufacturing process is monitored, documented and certified to ensure that the medication you pick up at the pharmacy is safe and exactly what your doctor intended for you.

This isn’t the case in other countries – especially some of the countries shipping drugs to the U.S.

Last year, the World Health Organization estimated that 10 percent of medical products in low and middle-income countries are fake; and these products infiltrate the global supply chain. In fact, in 2018 counterfeit prescriptions are among the most seized goods by U.S. Customs.

This is the reality when it comes to regulating drugs with unknown origins. Counterfeit drugs are not a red-herring boogieman thrown up to distract from policy debates, they are a real and constant threat to our public health. For example, in April an online Canadian pharmacy sold $78 million worth of counterfeit and unapproved drugs in the United States. In some instances, the company was selling cancer treatments with no active ingredients.

At a time when our country is struggling with a raging opioid epidemic, fueled in part by the misuse and illegal sale of prescription drugs – and increasing deaths from synthetic drugs like fentanyl – importing more unknown pharmaceuticals is not the answer. In fact, dangerous look-alike drugs already pose a threat to U.S. consumers due to this high demand, and that’s without importation.

Sec. Azar explained at Heritage that his industry background gives him unique and unprecedented insight into how to affect change in Washington and bring down healthcare costs for everyday Americans. We agree, which is why we’re disappointed that Sec. Azar and the Administration continue to go down this path toward importation that has been examined time and time again and deemed to be impractical, ineffective and downright dangerous.

In this case, we urge Sec. Azar and the administration to turn to other proposals that will continue their progress to bring down costs for all Americans and help take cost-raising government regulations out of our healthcare system.