Sanders plans trip to Canada with group seeking cheaper insulin

TORONTO — American presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said on Thursday that he would soon be coming to Canada with a group of diabetics to buy cheaper insulin.

The Vermont senator said in a tweet that he planned to make the trip toward the end of this month.

Typically, a vial of insulin Type 1 diabetics need to regulate their blood sugar costs about US$340 in the United States, roughly 10 times the price in Canada.

“We can’t wait for drug companies to lower prices,” Sanders tweeted on Thursday. “Americans need relief now!”

Sanders, who has long targeted pharmaceutical companies for the cost of prescription drugs, made a similar medication trip to Canada in 1999. He has accused the industry of being antithetical to the interests of the American public.

According to CNN, Sanders and the diabetics will make the trip as part of his efforts to highlight the hardships some Americans face when it comes to drug purchases. The plan is to head to Windsor, Ont., from Detroit.

Current rules allow Americans to take home a maximum threemonth personal supply of medicines bought in Canada, and four states — Florida among them — have passed legislation allowing for wholesale or individual imports of medications. Because insulin is non-prescription in Canada, there is no tracking mechanism of how much might be heading south.

Canada, in line with other industrialized countries, regulates drug prices through the quasi-judicial patented medicine prices review board whose mandate is to prevent gouging.