The solution to high medication costs in the U.S. is importing cheaper drugs from Canada, a group of U.S. politicians said Wednesday.

Members of both the Democratic and Republican parties announced plans for legislation to allow imports of prescription medicine from other countries.

Drug companies have a monopoly over prices in the U.S., which is why Americans pay more than Canadians for the same drugs, said Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic congressman from Illinois.

Senator Byron Dorgan estimated Americans could save about $50 billion US over the next 10 years if the measure is passed.

Emanuel said he has been comparing the cost of 10 different drugs at a Costco in Chicago and at the same retailer in Toronto. The monthly tally for the U.S. bill is usually $1,500 US more than the Canadian one, he said.

U.S. pharmaceutical companies and the Bush administration oppose importing from Canada.

Some Canadian groups are also unhappy, saying the country may face drug shortages if the bill goes through. They are urging the federal government to cut off exports.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. health officials said inspections revealed drug- testing concerns at a Canadian company that could affect the applications of hundreds of medicines awaiting approval in the U.S. or that are already on the market.

There is no evidence of problems with the quality, purity or potency of the affected drugs, which were tested by MDS Pharma Services between 2000 and 2004 as part of the company's application to the regulator, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

"The FDA is taking this precautionary measure to make sure the data submitted to the agency is of the highest quality," said Joseph Famulare, deputy director of the office of compliance in the agency's drug evaluation and research division.

The FDA said the company did not identify and fix sources of contamination in the tests, which measure drug levels in the blood of patients. The accuracy of testing methods was also not properly validated and documented.

With files from the Associated Press