[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 18, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE HIGH PRICE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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 an issue that 
more and more Americans are aware of, and that is, first of all, the 
high price that Americans pay for prescription drugs, but, more 
important even than that, the difference between what Americans pay and 
what the rest of the world pays for the same drugs.
  I have with me a chart that I have updated several times over the 
last several years, and it is one of those areas where the more you 
learn about this, the angrier you become at the system.
  Let me point out some of the prices, because I know these are hard to 
read here in the Chamber and on C-SPAN. But let me point out a few of 
these.
  Here we have Augmentin, a very commonly prescribed drug. The average 
price in the United States for a 30-day supply, $55.50. That same drug 
in Europe on average sells for $8.75.
  Let us take a drug like Claritin. Claritin is a drug going off of 
patent. It still sells in the United States when we made up this chart 
for about $89. In Europe, the same drug sells for $18.75

                              {time}  1600

  Another drug that many Americans are very familiar with is the drug 
Premarin. Many women take the drug Premarin, especially as they reach 
menopause. Mr. Speaker, $55.42 is the American price; $8.95 if you buy 
that drug in Europe. It goes on and on. Zoloft, a very commonly 
prescribed drug; in the United States a 30-day supply is $114; in 
Europe it is $52.50.
  Let me point out another very important drug that has done a lot of 
good in this country and around the world for people who suffer from 
diabetes, and something like 27 percent of all Medicare expenditures 
are diabetes related. Glucophage in the United States costs $124.65, 
and in Europe that drug is only $22.
  Now, what we are talking about here are the same drugs made in the 
same FDA-approved facilities that are sold in both places. It would be 
easy for us to come to the floor of the House and say, shame on the 
pharmaceutical industry. Well, I am not here to say shame on the 
pharmaceutical industry. They are only doing what any capitalist 
company would do, and that is that they are maximizing their market 
opportunities.
  Now, it is not shame on the pharmaceutical industry. It is shame on 
the FDA, and it is shame on us here in Congress for allowing this to 
happen.
  I want to point out something else, and then I will yield to the 
gentleman from Georgia. Why this gets very important is because last 
year, according to the National Institutes of Health Health Care 
Management, prescription drugs went up 19 percent here in the United 
States. The average Social Security cost of living adjustment was only 
3.5 percent. One more chart I will show, because this is the most 
difficult one of all.
  Earlier, one of our colleagues, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Filner), was talking about affordability; and affordability is the real 
issue. It is not about coverage; it is about affordability. He said 
that there was not enough coverage in the Republican plan that the 
members of the House Committee on Ways and means and the Committee on 
Commerce are putting together.
  Well, here is the number that the Congressional Budget Office tells 
us. Over the next 10 years, this is how much they estimate seniors will 
spend on prescription drugs. This is a 1 and then an 8, and then 
000,000,000,000; that is $1.8 trillion. We cannot afford prescription 
drugs because the prices are too high. If we could do what some of us 
want to do, and that is at least open up the American markets to 
imports, we could save at least 35 percent. Mr. Speaker, I say to my 
colleagues, 35 percent of $1.8 trillion is $630 billion just for 
seniors, just over the next 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston).
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. 
I want to say the great advantage of reimportation is not only does it 
save money now, it does it without a new government program, and it is 
a market-driven change.
  The gentleman often quotes Ronald Reagan, who said that markets are 
powerful things, more powerful than armies. Here we already have groups 
like Canada Meds. I am not familiar with it, but I understand it is on 
the Internet. Canada Meds can save American seniors right now on their 
prescriptions, of all of the drugs that the gentleman mentioned, 30, 
40, 50 percent routinely. It is not just for people who are 65 years 
old. If you are a mother with three kids and they have earaches, as 
small children frequently do, you can save that money today. This is 
going to happen with or without the United States Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman. Shame on the FDA, and shame 
on the United States Congress for not passing a law to let the 
neighborhood pharmacist take advantage of these low Canadian prices.

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