[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S3215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  GATT

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, yesterday I spoke briefly about our failure 
to correct a loophole in the GATT legislation which gives a handful of 
companies unprecedented and unintended special treatment. Our 
distinguished colleague, Senator Hatch, raised a few points which my 
distinguished colleague, Senator Chafee and I feel deserve 
clarification.
  For several months, we have sought an opportunity to remedy the 
mistake made by Congress and the administration when the GATT 
implementing legislation was enacted. The legislation's grandfather 
provisions were meant to apply to every person, product, company, and 
industry in the country. But the final GATT legislation accidentally 
excluded the prescription drug industry because it lacked a conforming 
amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. As a result, the 
prescription drug industry is the only industry in the country which 
received the patent extension but is unfairly exempted and shielded 
from competition. Because of this mistake, consumers and taxpayers are 
paying billions of dollars far too much for a handful of drugs, 
including Zantac, the world's best-selling drug.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I agree entirely with my colleague, 
Senator Pryor, and wish to raise one simple but important point. It 
should be noted clearly and conclusively that there is an extensive 
record of evidence from the U.S. Trade Representative, the Patent and 
Trademark Office, and the Food and Drug Administration that a mistake 
was made by both the Congress and the administration. There is 
absolutely no question as to this fact. To dispel any doubts, I would 
like to submit for the Record an excerpt from Ambassador Mickey 
Kantor's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 27:

       The Congress and the Administration did not, however, take 
     into account the technical interrelationship between the 
     Patent Act and the regulation of pharmaceutical products by 
     the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. In fact, no one--
     including those in the private sector who watched these 
     developments closely--took this interrelationship into 
     account. This [Senate Judiciary] Committee and the House 
     Judiciary Committee held a joint hearing on August 12, 1994, 
     to review the intellectual property provisions of the URAA 
     and not a single reference was made to this system. In all 
     this time, not a single reference was made to the fact that 
     pharmaceuticals may be treated differently than other forms 
     of technology, not even by Gerald Mossinghoff of the 
     Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, who 
     testified in support of this legislation without referring to 
     this provision . . . We did not intend for this to happen and 
     we support the correction of this oversight through the 
     appropriate amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and 
     the Patent Act.

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I concur wholeheartedly with Senator 
Chafee. Let me add that for a number of months, we have sought an 
opportunity to vote on the missing conforming amendment. In December, a 
primary argument against acting on the amendment was the alleged need 
for a committee hearing. The February 27 hearing was never sought by us 
and, in fact, it did not add a single additional fact to the public 
record on this issue. The hearing simply reinforced the substantial 
body of evidence which proves a costly and inequitable mistake was made 
and is in urgent need of correction.
  Nor has a markup in any committee ever been an objective of those 
seeking to correct this congressional mistake. As chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch promised a markup on this issue by 
the end of March. That apparently was not possible. My colleagues, 
Senators Chafee and Brown, and I believe very strongly that any further 
delay in remedying this clear and costly congressional error will only 
benefit a handful of companies at the expense of their competitors and 
the American public.

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