Content area
Full text
Although the director of Safeway Inc.'s pharmacy operations in Canada has publicly stated that his company is considering importing lower-cost Canadian drugs for sale in its American stores while setting up an Internet pharmacy, officials at the grocery giant's Pleasanton headquarters adamantly deny any such plans exist.
Barry Peachment of Safeway's 217-store Canadian division based in Calgary, Alberta, was quoted July 15 in a Winnipeg newspaper as saying Safeway has been forced to study such options because despite the sale and importation of drugs from Canada being illegal - U.S. officials have balked at enforcing the law out of fear that it could prove highly unpopular with consumers. Between Internet sales and busloads of senior citizens traversing the Canadian border to make direct drugstore purchases, estimates of the amount spent by Americans on Canadian drugs last year range from $630 million to $1 billion.
That is less than 0.7 percent of overall retail drug sales in the United States in 2003 - $152.2 billion.
"Cross-border drugs are an opportunity for anyone in this market," Peachment was quoted as saying by the Winnipeg Free Press. "We are looking at it as a possibility that we can reduce our costs. The little guys (Internet pharmacies) have...