[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 50 (Monday, April 29, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S3502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICE PARITY FOR AMERICANS ACT

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, in March 2002, the National 
Institute for Health Care Management announced that for yet another 
year, prescription drug prices rose more than ten percent. Often we see 
these rising costs attributed to the plethora of new drugs now 
available and to the resources needed to produce such innovative 
technologies. Yet, I find this argument difficult to accept when 
Fortune 500 reported this month that while most industries report 
dwindling earnings, pharmaceutical companies were showing impressive 
gains. Drug prices rising steadily in a year when the pharmaceutical 
industry trumped all other industries in profitability is a correlation 
that should come to nobody as a surprise.
  Pharmaceutical companies continue to insist that they are sinking 
under the heavy cost of research and development. But R&D costs are not 
causing high drug prices. Excessive profits are causing high drug 
prices, and excessive profits are keeping necessary drugs out of the 
financial reach of millions. It is time for Congress to challenge the 
practices of U.S. drug manufacturers. The Prescription Drug Price 
Parity for Americans Act exposes drug manufacturers to international 
price competition by allowing the reimportation of FDA-approved drugs 
from Canada, where prices are almost 35 percent lower. In the face of 
such competition, drug companies will be confronted with the fact that, 
all along, their prices have not only been exorbitant, but unwarranted.
  Over the past few years, I have brought to the Senate floor countless 
stories of Michigan residents who have crossed the border into Canada 
simply to get their hands on affordable prescription drugs. They 
continue to do so as we speak, and I do not blame them when just a few 
months ago I found that Prilosec, a commonly prescribed 
gastrointestinal drug, was fifty dollars less in a pharmacy in Windsor, 
Canada, than in a pharmacy in neighboring Detroit. U.S. pharmaceutical 
manufacturers continue to operate in a closed market. They are still 
able to get away with charging $50 more than their Canadian 
counterparts. Additionally, they are currently the only ones who are 
allowed to import drugs approved by the FDA. American pharmacists and 
distributors deserve this right, too. Pharmacists and distributors 
deserve not only the right to purchase lower costing FDA-approved drugs 
abroad, but to bring these critical drugs back to America where the 
savings can be passed on to our own citizens. The Prescription Drug 
Price Parity for Americans Act, which improves upon last year's enacted 
version, would make this access possible.
  High drug prices impact everyone--the young and the old, the insured 
and the uninsured--we all lose when prescription drugs are 
unaffordable. Much more needs to be done to expand access to lower 
priced prescription drugs sold abroad and the bill we are introducing 
today will help to offer that opportunity.

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