OTTAWA — Canada's highly successful price-control regime for prescription drugs could be at stake in the controversy over Internet drug exports, says Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh.

He made the comment on the same day that Manitoba Premier Gary Doer visited Prime Minister Paul Martin to plead against federal restrictions on the lucrative Internet pharmacy based in his province.

Dosanjh said the current price regime is threatened by a "Canada-only'' bill now before Congress that would allow Americans to purchase drugs via Internet from Canada but not from other countries.

If such legislation were passed, Canada would be overwhelmed by drug buying from the United States, he said. The system that keeps Canadian drug prices 40 per cent below U.S. prices might not survive.

Currently the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board regulates prescription drug prices to ensure they don't rise faster than inflation.

"If that's not protected, it will be the provinces that will be paying hundreds of millions of dollars more through their pharmacare plans. This pricing regime is for the use of Canadians. It wasn't designed for export purposes.

"I think it is our obligation as the federal government to make sure we protect that pricing regime on behalf of all Canadians.''

Dosanjh said U.S. President George W. Bush raised the Internet pharmacy issue with Prime Minister Paul Martin during their recent meeting in Ottawa.

That could explain why the federal government has changed its attitude on the issue since the summit, warning about restrictions after having previously seemed unconcerned.

Doer is blaming Dosanjh for the tougher approach, saying he preferred the hands-off style of former health minister Anne McLellan.

"I would suggest strongly that instead of Mr. Dosanjh folding like a cheap suit on this issue with the United States, that he would be aware of the decisions and the stand Ms. McLellan had when she was minister of health,'' Doer said after meeting Martin.

"We think that Anne McLellan took a more balanced approach than what's happening now.''

Doer said the Internet pharmacy is a "huge business'' employing 2,500 people in Manitoba. He avoided questions on whether it's ethical for doctors to co-sign the prescriptions of patients they haven't seen.

Dosanjh said he's considering three options for restricting Internet sales:

• amending the Food and Drugs Act to forbid doctors from co-signing prescriptions
• preventing doctors from prescribing drugs for foreigners
• placing certain drugs on a protected list.

"Under the circumstances we may need all three (or the proposed options,'' he said. "I am very, very concerned as the minister of health.''