[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 141 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H10154-H10155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE AFFORDABLE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, many of us in this institution have 
been highly critical of the American pharmaceutical industry. Maybe, 
maybe we have been a bit too harsh. From a market perspective, drug 
companies are doing everything they should be doing. We cannot blame 
drug companies for maximizing their profits. That is their job. Nor can 
we blame the Federal Government for taking steps to protect seniors and 
the uninsured and to address the ramifications of what drug companies 
are doing to the disadvantaged. That is our job.
  To address this issue, I have introduced H.R. 2927 to bring down 
prices without taking away the industry's incentive to act like an 
industry. My bill promotes good, old-fashioned American competition. 
The Affordable Prescription Drug Act does not use price controls, does 
not use regulations to bring down prescription drug prices. What my 
bill does is reduce drug industry power and increase consumer power by 
subjecting the drug industry to the same competitive forces that other 
industries bear. It is a means of moderating prices that are too high 
without inadvertently setting prices that are too low.
  Drawing from intellectual property laws already in place for the U.S. 
for other products in which access is an issue, pollution control 
devices come to mind, the legislation would establish product licenses 
for essential prescription drugs. If, based on criteria published by 
the Department of Commerce, a drug price is so outrageously high that 
it bears no semblance to pricing norms for other industries, the 
Federal Government could require drug manufacturers to license their 
patent to generic drug companies. The generic drug companies could then 
sell competing products before the brand name patent expires, paying 
the patent holder royalties for that right.
  The patent holder would still be amply rewarded for being the first 
on the market, and Americans would benefit from competitively driven 
prices.
  Alternatively, a drug company could voluntarily lower its prices, 
which would preclude the Federal Government from being involved, from 
finding cause for product licensing. Either way, prescription drug 
prices come down.
  The bill requires drug companies to provide audited, detailed 
information on drug company expenses. Given that these companies are 
repeatedly asking us to accept a status quo that is bankrupting seniors 
and fueling health care inflation, they have kept us guessing about 
their true costs for far too long. We can continue to buy into drug 
industry threats that research and development will dry up unless we 
continue to shelter them from competition. The argument, however, Mr. 
Speaker, falls apart when we actually look at how R&D is funded today.
  Long story short, it is mostly funded by American taxpayers. Fifty 
percent of research and development for new drugs in this country is 
done by the Federal Government, by local governments and by 
foundations. The other 50 percent that the drug company spends, the 
Federal Government, Congress, has bestowed tax breaks on those 
companies for those dollars they do spend. The drug companies turn 
around and thank U.S. consumers by charging us two times, three times, 
four times what consumers in other countries pay.
  We pay for half the research. We give tax breaks on the dollars they 
do spend. They turn around and charge American consumers twice or three 
times what consumers of prescription drugs pay in every other country 
in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, we can do nothing or we can dare to challenge the drug 
industry on behalf of seniors and every health care consumer in this 
country. We should take a serious look at the Allen bill, the Berry-
Sanders bill, the Brown bill. There is no excuse for inaction.

                              {time}  1945

  I urge my colleagues to support lowering the cost of prescription 
medicine. Let us act responsibly before it is too late.

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