By Christopher Wills
The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Hoping to save money on prescription drugs, Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked for federal permission Monday to set up a pilot program that would import medications from Canada.

Blagojevich said the new federal Medicare bill gives the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the authority to waive the rules against bringing in drugs from outside the country in order to set up a pilot program. He sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asking for a decision on the waiver within 30 days.

The Democratic governor proposed several safeguards to help alleviate worries about the quality of drugs bought in other countries.

The state would develop a list of drugs, all approved by the Food and Drug Administration, that could be imported. All prescriptions would be filled by an Illinois pharmacist first, and only refills could be imported. The program would be voluntary for the state's 230,000 state employees and retirees.

"All we're asking for is an opportunity to try something new," Blagojevich said at a news conference.

He said the state might sue if the waiver is not granted.

"My preference is to avoid lawsuits," Blagojevich said. "I'm not ruling that out as a possibility."

Drug costs have become a major burden for states. Illinois, for example, spent $340 million on prescription drugs just for its employees and retirees last fiscal year, a 15 percent increase from the previous year.

New Hampshire and Boston have announced plans to buy prescription drugs from Canada as a way to cut costs, and Springfield, Mass., is already allowing its employees to do so, which is currently against the law.

But Blagojevich, while continuing to push to overturn the federal ban on importing lower-priced drugs from Canada, has said he will not break the law.

Bill Pierce, a Health Department spokesman, said the agency had authority in the past to grant waivers if the drugs were safe, but Thompson and former Secretary Donna Shalala concluded they could make no guarantees.

"Nothing changes," Pierce said. "The bottom line is, twice there have been similar laws to allow reimported drugs but only if they have been certified as safe. Donna Shalala and Secretary Thompson have said they could not do that. That's the key part."

Pierce said safety is an issue because drugs bought from foreign countries, even drugs originally manufactured in the United States, are not monitored by U.S. inspectors.

There's no way to tell if they have been stored safely or labeled properly, he said, and drugs that were originally manufactured without government oversight might not have been made correctly.

Blagojevich also said he and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty have scheduled a prescription drug summit for the nation's governors Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C.

Blagojevich commissioned a report earlier this year that said Illinois would save as much as $91 million if state employees and retirees bought drugs from Canada, which is illegal.