[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 146 (Monday, October 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H10754]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   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. Madam Speaker, I joined the President and Health 
and Human Services Secretary Shalala today at the White House to call 
on Congress to approve a prescription drug benefit in Medicare. We also 
called on private health plans to continue providing coverage for 
medicine that doctors prescribe.
  The problem is twofold. Millions of Americans, young and old, cannot 
afford the high costs of prescription drugs. And the majority in 
Congress refuse to lift a finger to reduce these prices and help 
protect public health.
  Unlike other industrialized nations, the U.S. does not regulate drug 
prices. So drug companies charge us the highest prices of any nation by 
multiples of two and three and even four times what citizens in other 
countries pay.
  Within the United States, drug companies are charging the highest 
prices to those with the least bargaining power, the elderly and those 
without health insurance. Drug companies are diverting also huge sums 
of money, money that comes from inflated drug prices, into advertising.
  From a market perspective, drug companies are doing everything they 
should be doing. We cannot blame drug companies for maximizing their 
profits. They make more money than any other industry in America. That 
is their job. Nor can we blame the President and many of us in Congress 
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.
  I have introduced an initiative that would 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, H.R. 2927, does not use price 
controls or 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 too low.
  Drawing from intellectual property laws already in place in the U.S. 
for other products in which access is an issue, pollution control 
devices as one example, legislation would establish product licensing 
for essential prescription drugs.
  If 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 companies could sell competing products before 
the brand name expires, paying the patentholder royalties for that 
right. The patentholder 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 lower voluntarily their price, 
which would preclude the Government from finding cause for product 
licensing. Either way, Madam Speaker, the price of prescription drugs 
would go down.
  The bill requires drug companies to provide audited, detailed 
information on drug company expenses. Given that these companies are 
asking us to accept a status quo that has bankrupt seniors and fueled 
health care inflation, they have kept us guessing about their true cost 
for far too long.
  We can continue to buy into drug industry threats that R&D will dry 
up unless we continue to shelter them from competition. That argument, 
however, Madam Speaker, falls apart when we look at how R&D is funded 
today.
  Long story short, most of research and development dollars are 
provided by U.S. taxpayers. Get this: fifty percent of all the research 
and development for drug development in this country are paid for by 
taxpayers and the National Institutes of Health and other Federal and 
State agencies; and of the 50 percent that drug companies actually 
spend, they get tax deductions from Congress for that.
  Yet, prescription drug companies reward American taxpayers by 
charging Americans consumers two times, three times, four times the 
price for prescription drugs that people in other countries pay.
  Madam Speaker, we can do nothing in this body, or we can dare to 
challenge the drug industry on behalf of seniors and every health care 
consumer in this country.
  I urge my colleagues to support lowering the cost of prescription 
drugs.

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