The Clinton administration Tuesday killed a program created by Congress to allow imports of low-cost prescription drugs. The administration said the import plan would not be safe and would not lower prices for consumers.

Donna Shalala, the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, said the program, adopted by Congress with much fanfare, was severely flawed.

"These flaws undermine the potential for cost savings associated with prescription drug reimportation and could pose unnecessary public health risks," she said.

Even though the administration had previously questioned the feasibility of the program, the timing of Shalala's finding was a surprise. The Clinton administration could easily have left the issue to President-elect George W. Bush, but instead invoked a provision of the law to abort the program.

At a presidential debate on Oct. 17, Bush said the drug-import program "makes sense" as a way to help people buy medicines at affordable prices. But advisers to Bush said Tuesday that he would also consider other ways to moderate the costs of prescription drugs, which have grown rapidly in recent years.

The drug-import program was included in the annual spending bill for the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. President Clinton supported a version of the drug-import program approved by the Senate on July 19 by a vote of 74-21.

The bill was revised in negotiations between the House and the Senate. When Clinton signed it on Oct. 28, he said the drug-import program was "little more than a false promise," because of what he described as "loopholes." But Clinton gave no hint that his concerns were so deep that he would terminate the program before trying to carry it out.

On Tuesday, Shalala said the drug-import law had at least three "flaws and loopholes":

- Drug companies could block imports of certain medications by denying importers access to the government-approved labeling that must be used on any prescription drugs sold in the United States.

- Authority for the program would have expired after five years. Wholesalers would have been reluctant to invest in the equipment needed to test and distribute imported drugs because they could not be sure of "long-term financial returns."

- Drugmakers could have thwarted the intent of Congress by requiring drug distributors to sell imported drugs at high prices.

Under the law, drugmakers could not completely block the sale or distribution of imported drugs in the United States. But, through contracts with drug distributors, they could have tried to limit the supply or set the price of such drugs.

House Republican leaders, taking political heat over the high cost of prescription drugs, embraced the import plan six weeks before Election Day. But in subsequent negotiations, they opposed efforts by some Democrats to limit the prices that could be charged for imported drugs.

After working out details of the legislation in October, Congress at the last minute added a proviso saying that it would take effect only if the secretary of health and human services demonstrated to Congress that it would "pose no additional risk to the public's health and safety" and would "result in a significant reduction in the cost of covered products to the American consumer."

In a letter Tuesday to Clinton, Shalala said she could not demonstrate that.

Gail Wilensky, a health policy adviser to Bush, said, "That effectively kills the provision." The new administration and the new Congress will have to decide whether to try to perfect the program or to "pursue other strategies to slow the growth in spending on pharmaceuticals," she said.