Canada is considering a ban on bulk drug exports to the US to avert a potential drug shortage.

"We will certainly look at the possibility of bulk exports to the US and see if they can be banned," Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Dosanjh said it was likely that the US Congress would soon pass legislation that would allow unlimited import of medication, the South Asian Observer reported.

"One of the options that's being developed and fully analysed is that option (a ban). The work is almost complete and we will be taking that to the cabinet in the next little while, unless of course an election is called."

He pointed out that professional associations in some Canadian provinces had penalised physicians who signed Internet prescriptions without examining the patients who would receive the medication. This practice is known as co-signing.

"Alberta in particular has moved to outline the fact that co-signing is unethical," said Dosanjh.

"I think that is an issue that may eventually deal with itself without requiring any outside intervention. "But the bulk exports are more dangerous because bulk exports if allowed will lead to an increase in prices in Canada due to the shortage of supply and may in fact endanger and threaten our price-control regime."

On Tuesday, a coalition of pharmacists, doctors and patients cautioned that Canada could face a shortage of drugs if the US passed the legislation to allow unlimited imports of medicine.

"We are sleepwalking toward a calamity," Jeff Poston, executive director of the Canadian Pharmacists Association, told reporters. "US politicians are preparing to throw the drug import doors wide open."

In Canada, the Patent Medicines Prices Review Board sets drug prices. Cross-border trade is thriving, mainly over the Internet, as medication is cheaper in Canada than in the US.