[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 72 (Wednesday, June 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Schrock). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about outrageously 
high drug prices and what we pay for drugs in the United States 
compared to what the rest of the world is paying.
  There is a group down in Florida, and they have been doing this 
research for a number of years, called the Life Extension Foundation or 
the Life Extension Network, and they have been doing research in terms 
of what Americans pay for prescription drugs and what the average 
European price for those same drugs, made in the same FDA-approved 
facilities, under the same FDA-approved methodology. These are the 
exact same drugs, and let us look at some of these.
  One that we became very familiar with in the last several months is a 
drug that is made in Germany. It is called Cipro. We bought an awful 
lot of Cipro when we started having anthrax mailed to places in 
Washington and New York. Cipro is a very effective antibiotic. The 
average United States price for a 30-day supply is $87.99. That same 
drug in Germany sells for $40.75.
  The story gets worse when we look at some of the more expensive 
drugs. Let us take the drug Claritin, for example, which is going off 
patent here in the United States, but it still sells for about an 
average of $89 for a 30-day supply in the United States. That exact 
same drug sells for $18.75 over in Europe.
  A drug that is technically off patent in the United States, the FDA 
has approved what they call a special extension of the patent, 
Glucophage, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for diabetes 
sufferers, which is one of the most common diseases in the United 
States, but Glucophage, a 30-day supply in the United States sells for 
$124.65. That same drug in Geneva, Switzerland, sells for $22.
  Mr. Speaker, as we look down this list, it becomes almost 
embarrassing that we allow this situation to exist, and the real 
culprit is not so much the pharmaceutical industry. They are doing what 
any industry would do, and that is, taking advantage of market 
opportunities. No, the real problem is that our own FDA stands between 
Americans and lower drug prices. It is not so much shame on them. It is 
shame on us.
  Now we passed a very important amendment last year on a vote of 324 
to 101 saying that as long as it is an FDA-approved drug made in an 
FDA-approved facility, that those drugs can be imported and reimported 
by both consumers and wholesalers and a local pharmacist.
  Let me show my colleagues one other drug that is fairly near and dear 
to my heart. It is a drug that my 85-year-old father takes. It is 
called Coumadin. When I first started putting these charts up a few 
years ago, the average price for a 30-day supply of Coumadin was about 
$38. In just a little over 2 years, that price is now over $64.
  Now, we asked the drug companies what has changed. I mean, do we have 
new doctoring regulations or new lawsuits that they have to settle? 
Have they had to spend more money getting approval? The answer is no, 
nothing has changed, except the price. It has gone from about $38 to 
about $64, almost $65 in the United States, but here is what really 
frosts me. The price over in Europe averages only $15.80 for the same 
drug.
  We are going to have some pitched debates over the next several weeks 
about prescription drugs, whether or not we should extend coverage, and 
I believe that we need to do something to help people who are currently 
falling through the cracks, but if we fail to deal with the critical 
issue of price, then it is shame on us.
  Let me explain how this gets important. Let me first of all show this 
chart. This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the 
National Institutes of Health Care Management, the last year we have 
full numbers for. The average Social Security recipient in the United 
States got a 3\1/2\ percent increase in their COLA on their Social 
Security. At the same time, prescription drug prices in the United 
States went up by 19 percent. Nineteen percent. That is unsustainable, 
and ultimately, we in Congress need to do something about it.
  My answer is let us open markets, let us allow some competition to 
exist, and we will see a real change.
  I think it is important that we do address the issue of prescription 
drugs, but according to the Congressional Budget Office, and they are 
our official scorekeepers, they are the ones who are bean counters, 
prognosticators, they tell us over the next 10 years their best 
estimate is that seniors, people over the age of 65, and look at all 
these numbers, this is how much they estimate seniors will pay for 
prescription drugs over the next 10 years. That is $1.8 trillion. There 
is not enough money in the Federal Treasury to come up with that and 
continue to fund the other legitimate needs of people here in the 
United States of America.
  The reason I put 35 percent under that, to give a point to why it is 
important that we do something on reimportation this year, is that I 
estimate we can save at least 35 percent. Here in Washington a billion 
dollars gets lost once in a while. In fact, the old expression, a 
billion here, billion there, pretty soon you are talking about real 
money, but if we multiply the 35 percent minimum savings that I think 
we can get with reimportation times $1.8 trillion over the next 10 
years, we can save American consumers $630 billion. That is real money, 
and that is real money out of the pockets of either our seniors or the 
taxpayers here in the United States.
  I believe that we as Americans ought to pay our fair share of the 
research cost for pharmaceuticals. I am not here to beat up on the 
pharmaceutical industry because they have done a lot of wonderful 
things. There are millions of American that are alive today and living 
better lives because of what they have done with their research. I 
think we should pay our fair share, but shame on us if they continue to 
force us to subsidize the starving Swiss.

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