[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 81 (Friday, June 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCING THE PUBLIC INVESTMENT RECOVERY ACT OF 2000

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                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 22, 2000

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, today I filed the Public Investment 
Recovery Act of 2000. This legislation would enable the Federal 
Government to recover a portion of the taxpayer dollars currently used 
to develop pharmaceutical, biologic and genetic products.
  It is important that both Congress and the pharmaceutical industry 
recognize that the American people, through Federal tax money, 
contribute substantially to the development of new drugs. Sadly, many 
of these same taxpayers are without prescription drug coverage and 
cannot afford the high costs of these medications.
  Consider a recent report in the New York Times which focused on the 
hardships of one of our nation's senior citizens who has no 
prescription drug coverage. The gentleman featured in the report 
depends on an $832 monthly Social Security check to survive. 
Tragically, these funds are not enough to pay for the eye drops he 
needs to battle his disabling glaucoma. Yet, the drug he so desperately 
needs--Xalatan--was developed with significant investment by the 
National Institutes of Health; an investment funded primarily by the 
ordinary American taxpayer.
  The fact is a significant portion of the drugs sold on the market 
have benefited from taxpayer investment. How much? The answer is not 
clear; the pharmaceutical industry is protective when it comes to the 
costs of drug research and development. What is clear is that in 1999, 
alone, the top 12 drug companies made over $27.3 billion in profits. 
Moreover, a study done in 1995 by the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology found that 11 of the 14 drugs identified by the 
pharmaceutical industry as the most medically significant in the past 
25 years (1970 to 1995) were developed with taxpayer dollars.
  We cannot continue to fund basic research that allows the 
pharmaceutical industry to generate such substantial profits while 
consumers are required to pay excessive prices for their prescription 
drugs. The Public Investment Recovery Act of 2000 will recoup a portion 
of the initial federal seed money for the government which could then 
be used to finance additional research and development efforts as well 
as to strengthen a Medicare prescription drug benefit. As stakeholders 
in our national research efforts, we should not be asked to contribute 
to research without the benefit of having access to affordable medicine 
that this research yields.




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