[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 12, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Keller). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about an issue 
that we in Congress and most Americans are becoming painfully aware of, 
and that is, the differential between what we pay for prescription 
drugs in the United States and what people around the rest of the world 
pay for the exact same drugs made in exactly the same plants, under the 
same FDA approval.
  What I have here tonight is a chart which shows what I think are 15 
of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States and a 
comparison which was done. These are not my numbers. These were done by 
the Life Extension Foundation, and they have been studying this issue 
for a number of years and probably have done a better job of assembling 
raw data about the differentials, and I would like to go through some 
of the numbers on these charts.
  Let me talk about, for example, Glucophage. Glucophage is an amazing 
drug, and let me first of all say, I am not here tonight to beat up on 
the pharmaceutical industry. They have done some wonderful things. We 
are all living longer and better quality lives because of the research 
that they have done, but Glucophage is a very important drug for 
diabetes.
  The average price for a 30-day supply of Glucophage in the United 
States is $124.65. That exact same drug in Europe, again made under the 
same FDA approval, sells for $22. That is six times as much for the 
same drug, and that is a very important drug for the millions of 
Americans who suffer from diabetes.
  Let us take another drug that is very common, commonly prescribed 
particularly for older women, women who are beyond menopause. Let us 
take Premarin. It is actually a fairly simple drug to make. In the 
United States, a 30-day supply sells for $55.42. That same drug in 
Europe sells for $8.95, and we do go down the list and we see it 
repeats itself.
  Let us take a very commonly prescribed drug, one that my 85-year-old 
father takes. It is Coumadin. It is a drug that is used as a blood 
thinner, and the interesting thing, when most people start on these, 
particularly seniors, they do not just take them for a week or a month. 
Most of them will be on those drugs for the rest of their lives. So we 
are talking about huge expenditures when people start down the path of 
having to take these drugs.
  They are important drugs, but let us take Coumadin. The price in the 
United States for a 30-day supply, $64.80 cents. That same drug in 
Switzerland sells for $15.80 on average. What a difference.
  We are going to have a big debate in the next several weeks about 
whether or not we should extend Medicare coverage and have a new 
prescription drug benefit, and I think clearly if we were reinventing 
Medicare today, as they did in 1965, we would include a Medicare 
benefit, but this is not so much shame on the pharmaceutical industry 
because they are doing what any company would do, and that is, they are 
maximizing profits. It is shame on the FDA for doing this to our 
seniors, and it is shame on us for letting it happen.
  Let me show you another chart. One of the things that disturbs me is 
how much the price of prescription drugs has gone up. In the last year 
we have numbers, the average Social Security recipient received a cost-
of-living adjustment of 3\1/2\ percent. Prescription drugs went up 19 
percent. We hear stories every day about these seniors who have to make 
difficult, painful choices that no American should have to make, and a 
big reason is because of the price.
  What does this mean ultimately for the budget? I have a plan to make 
it easier for Americans to import through their pharmacist or by 
themselves these prescription drugs from other countries. My vision is 
that people would be able to go to their local pharmacy, and if they 
wanted the prescription filled today, they could literally pay the 
American price but the pharmacist would be able to say, listen, I can 
fill it today and the price for that Coumadin would be $64.80, or I can 
have this prescription filled in Geneva, Switzerland, and the price 
will be $16.80 and it will take three days and we will ship it FedEx 
and then the person will have it. I think many Americans would choose 
that option.
  Let me talk about the numbers because this is a very big number. This 
is $1,800,000,000,000. That is $1.8 trillion. Even in Washington that 
is a huge number. What is $1.8 trillion? That is what the Congressional 
Budget Office tells us that senior citizens, people 65 and older, will 
spend on prescription drugs over the next 10 years. I am convinced that 
if we open up markets, if we allow people to buy drugs from other 
countries we can save at least 35 percent. If we multiply that out, it 
is $630 billion that we can save seniors. It is time to open up 
markets. It is time for Americans to pay their fair share of the cost 
of developing new drugs, but it is time to say that we will stop 
subsidizing the starving Swiss.

                          ____________________