Seeking cheaper medicine
The week's news at a glance.
Chicago
An Illinois study released this week concluded that the state government could save $91 million a year by buying prescription drugs from Canada for state employees. Illinois is leading a pack of local and state governments lobbying for the right to import medicine from Canada, where government controls make the average prescription 40 percent cheaper than in the U.S. Federal health officials said they had no intention of lifting a ban on imported drugs, because U.S. inspectors cannot ensure that drugs from abroad are safe. But Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said that Canadian safety regulations were more than adequate to protect patients from expired and counterfeit drugs. “It’s hard to stop an idea whose time has come,” Blagojevich said.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giant
Feature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?