Congress considers relaxing rules that make it hard to purchase drugs outside U.S.

"Dick Coury, 80, is a former Detroiter who retired to Florida. A few months back, he ordered the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor from a Canadian Internet firm. The company mailed the drug to his home in Bradenton. He paid $112, instead of the $300 he would have paid at a local pharmacy.

But the next time he ordered, his shipment was stopped by the government. The Federal Drug Administration sent him a letter, he said, telling him the drug wasn't approved for sale in the country, even though Pfizer makes the medication and it is the best-selling drug in the United States and the world.

"It's the same exact pill. It's the real product," Coury said.

But under the FDA's rules, such shipments are illegal. While a person traveling to Canada may bring back a 90-day personal supply, it cannot legally be mailed if it's available in the United States."