A Toronto-based Internet pharmacy is taking the federal government to court to try to halt an inspection it says aims to penalize it for selling cheap drugs to Americans.

The outcome of the case could determine whether online pharmacies are legally required to have Canadian doctors sign their customers' U.S. prescriptions before the drugs are shipped across the border.

That thorny question has been a central theme in an intensifying cross-border debate that has pitted health-care professionals and politicians against each other.

In documents filed in Federal Court late last month, CanadaRX Corp. has asked a judge to prevent Health Canada inspectors from visiting its facility, calling the proposed inspection "invalid and unlawful" and a violation of the company's charter rights.

Lawyer Don Jack said correspondence exchanged in the last year suggests the government seems to have already made up its mind the company is violating the Food and Drugs Act.

"It's too late for them to go poking around and digging stuff up in every nook and cranny of our clients' operation," Jack said in an interview Wednesday.

CanadaRX is not an accredited pharmacy through the Ontario College of Pharmacists, a fact stated clearly on the company's website.

That makes the business one of the only Internet pharmacies in the country that ships medicine to Americans, either directly or through their doctor or pharmacist, based solely on their original prescription.

Most other online pharmacies must pay Canadian doctors to sign prescriptions for U.S. customers they have never physically examined in order to not run afoul of provincial regulations governing all accredited pharmacies.

The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Pharmacists Association are among the groups that have denounced the Internet pharmacy industry, calling the practice of long-distance prescriptions unethical, unsafe and a threat to the Canadian drug supply.

Health Canada spokeswoman Jirina Vlk said the Food and Drugs Act stipulates that Canadian drugs can only be sold if the prescription is written by health-care professionals licensed to practice medicine in Canada.

But Jack said his interpretation of a clause in the law dealing with exports means those provisions don't apply to sales outside Canada.

"Canadian physicians are here in Canada and the people using the product are in the United States and they are using their own physicians," said Jack.

"My client doesn't seek to use physicians who have never seen the patient. My client doesn't want to get into that."
Jack said it will now be up to the courts to decide who is right.

The court application cites the federal minister of health, currently Pierre Pettigrew, and Jim Daskalopoulos, acting manager of Health Canada's drug investigations unit.

A spokesman for Pettigrew did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Vlk said the department has received the court application and intends to defend itself. A court date has not been set.
Vlk said Health Canada decided last October to begin random inspections of Internet pharmacies and officials notified all provincial regulators and stakeholders.

Kris Thorkelson, president of the Manitoba International Pharmacists Association, said the industry has always argued that an American prescription alone should be valid in Canada.

However, he said CanadaRX is "very unique" in its approach and his association's 35 members all pay Canadian doctors to sign prescriptions.

While CanadaRX may be out of reach of the Ontario College of Pharmacists, registrar Deanna Williams said she is worried that customers of unaccredited pharmacies don't realize it's harder to get help if something goes wrong with their drugs.

"We're here to protect the public, but it's hard to protect the public against themselves," said Williams.