The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana isn't likely to join the growing number of states that are adding links to their government Web sites to connect users to Internet pharmacies in Canada that sell low-cost prescription drugs.

Neither Gov. Joe Kernan nor his Republican challenger Mitch Daniels want the state to put its stamp of approval on Internet drug buys from Canada.

With the click of a computer mouse, visitors to government Web sites in four states can fill orders for prescription drugs from private pharmacies in Canada.

While fewer politicians seem willing to stand in the way of Americans importing low-priced Canadian drugs, Indiana political leaders aren't pushing for it here.

Kernan, says spokesman Jonathan Swain, has concerns "about safety and security issues" with ordering drugs from Canada. "It's not something we're directly working on" doing in Indiana, Swain told the Indianapolis Star for a story published Sunday.

For his part, Daniels favors improving access to existing drug discount programs offered by drug makers and other health firms, perhaps by putting online referral services in senior citizen centers, said his deputy campaign manager, Ellen Whitt.

State government links to Internet pharmacies in Canada began in January when Minnesota set one up. Wisconsin, New Hampshire and North Dakota have since followed and Illinois is expected to join them soon.

While thousands of Americans buy prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies on their own or with the help of private programs, state endorsement of the purchases lends legitimacy to purchases the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says are illegal.

In Indiana, any attempt to set up a state program to aid Canadian drug-buying would be sure to draw opposition from Eli Lilly and Co.

Indianapolis-based Lilly argues that state-sanctioned import programs put people at heightened risk of receiving counterfeit or federally unapproved drugs sent in the mail from foreign pharmacists the customer never meets.