With a law to permit drug purchases from Canadian pharmacies expected to pass later this year, drugmakers are planning to fight back by retaliating against those Canadian pharmacies that choose to sell to Americans.

In the past, Big Pharma has sent letters to Canadian pharmacies telling them they would no longer receive quantity discounts if they sold drugs to U.S. consumers. These measures have been successful in bumping up the prices charged to U.S. consumers — but Americans still save an average of more than 50 percent by buying Canadian.

Word around the pharmaceutical industry is that drugmakers are plotting behind closed doors about how to respond to the Canadian pharmacy issue after the bill is passed. Will they clamp down even harder on Canadian pharmacies by restricting supplies? If they do, how will the FDA respond to what would clearly be an attempt to undermine the law?

It should definitely be interesting to watch. You can be sure that Big Pharma will do everything in its power to protect its double-digit profit margins.

A just-released study by the Fraser Institute confirms that brand-name drugs are much cheaper in Canada than the United States. It also shows the price difference has increased in recent years.

According to the study, after currency adjustments:

• In 2007, Canadians paid an average of 53 percent less than Americans for the 100 most common brand-name drugs
• In 2006, Canadians paid 51 percent less
• In 2003, Canadians paid 43 percent less

This increasing price disparity represents a great buying opportunity for U.S. prescription drug consumers who purchase medications from Canadian pharmacies.

What’s more, if you factor in the growing strength of the U.S. dollar compared to the Canadian dollar, the price difference is even greater. In many cases, you can save up to 80 percent by buying prescription drugs from Canada.

This is a picture of U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, announcing the bipartisan bill that will officially allow U.S. consumers to purchase drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

He’s holding two bottles of Lipitor, both made at the same plant in Ireland, then distributed to pharmacies in Canada and the United States.

Said Dorgan:

I have in fact two bottles here, the only difference is in color, one is red and one is blue …The only difference is the U.S. consumer gets to pay more than twice as much for the identical pill put in the same bottle. That’s unfair we believe.

While the bill, when made law as expected, will officially make it legal to purchase medications from Canada, you don’t have to wait to save money on your drug purchases. Based on the current FDA guidelines, you have little to fear in buying Canadian medications for personal use.

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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has produced an informative story looking at trends in Americans buying drugs from Canadian online pharmacies.

The story notes that at the start of decade, Americans were buying more than two million packages of prescription drugs annually from Canadian and other foreign pharmacies — adding up to a billion-dollar business. Since then, a rising Canadian dollar along with Medicare Part D have led to a decrease in Canadian drug purchases among Americans.

But the tide is shifting back in favor of Canadian online pharmacies, the CBC reports. The story points out that the Canadian dollar has fallen by 20 percent over the past six months, relative to the U.S. dollar, making Canadian drugs even more of a bargain. In addition, President Obama is eager to sign proposed legislation allowing Americans to purchase drugs legally from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

The CBC story includes a chart that compares prices for various medications at CanadaDrugs.com (a member of the Canadian Online Pharmacies network) and the U.S-based Drugstore.com.