CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Elderly and other Americans who cross the border to buy cheap prescription drugs in Canada will remain immune for the time being from a federal crackdown on the importation of medicine, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

The FDA, which obtained a court order to shut down some Internet importers of prescription drugs, doesn’t plan to change its policy of looking the other way when individuals travel to Canada to fill prescriptions, Commissioner Mark McClellan said.

“When people go into a pharmacy in Canada, a regulated pharmacy, and buy drugs from a legitimate pharmacy, that’s a different situation,” McClellan said after a speech at Harvard Business School.

“Canada has a very good safety system in place for people who buy within their own pharmacies,” he continued. “It’s when you go over the Internet or buy long-distance through an unregulated storefront operation with no professional expertise, you’re really entering a buyer-beware situation.”

On Thursday, a federal judge in Tulsa, Okla., granted an FDA request to shut down a Tulsa-based firm operating as Rx Depot and Rx of Canada, saying the company violates a federal law that allows only manufacturers to import drugs.

Federal regulators also are trying to close the company that provides Canadian-bought drugs to the city of Springfield, Mass. The FDA on Thursday informed CanaRx Services Inc. that its operations are illegal.

Springfield Mayor Michael Albano says his city expects to save $9 million through a voluntary program in which employees get their drugs through Canada. Albano says he’s not deterred by a federal threat that individual elected officials could be prosecuted. “Make my day,” he said Thursday.

McClellan pledged, however, that the crackdown will continue, although he would not discuss specifics.

“We’ve got a very big responsibility there and I hope that everyone involved – all the politicians involved who care deeply about this issue – will try to work to find ways to give Americans affordable drugs that are also safe and effective,” he said.

“We’re going to do our part, everybody should do theirs.”

Congress should pass a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and make it easier for generic drugs to compete with brand-name drugs, McClellan said.

But state Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who also spoke Friday at Harvard, said the FDA currently has the authority to certify that prescription drugs from Canada are safe, but won’t.

“I sympathize with the situation that Springfield is in,” Reilly said. “They’re in that situation because of the FDA’s inaction. By their inaction, they’re leading people to operate on their own, which is really not fair to American consumers.”

An estimated 1 million to 2 million Americans buy Canadian drugs through the Internet, storefront operations or by crossing the border – saving as much as half of the U.S. cost.

Brand-name drugs often cost less in Canada because of government price controls. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that its own survey found that Canadian prices, compared to U.S. prices, were up to 80 percent cheaper for 10 popular drugs.

Albano has called for a federal investigation of drug manufacturers for threatening to cut supplies to Canada in response to the cross-border buying. Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch filed suit against GlaxoSmithKline, claiming the drug company was leading an industry-wide conspiracy to keep Minnesotans from buying Canadian drugs.

Reilly says Massachusetts is likely to join the suit.

“We are following what is happening in Minnesota, as are other states. We’ll certainly join in that effort,” he said.

The pharmaceutical companies have denied any wrong doing and maintain that the higher prices paid by U.S. consumers help fuel drug research and development.

Marlborou resident Genevieve Aseltine, 77, estimates she saves $2,500 a year by purchasing her prescription drugs through Canada. She faxes her prescription to a pharmacy, which mails her medication.

“I feel that I should be allowed to buy anywhere I want to,” Aseltine said. “You can purchase anything else you want anywhere in the world, why not drugs?”

AP-ES-11-07-03 1808EST