[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 3, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H4845-H4846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES RUN ROUGHSHOD OVER AMERICAN CONSUMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, it was Will Rogers who said, ``All I know 
is what I read in the newspapers,'' and I was reading yesterday's Wall 
Street Journal, and I would invite my colleagues to read the Wall 
Street Journal of yesterday, as well, because there is a story there 
that is just shameful about American policies as it relates to 
prescription drugs.

[[Page H4846]]

  Let me read from this article from the Wall Street Journal front page 
yesterday. Let me read a couple of paragraphs. In fact, the headline 
is, ``Empty Shells: As U.S. Balks on Medicine Deal, African Patients 
Feel the Pain,'' and the subtitle is ``Big drug makers protecting their 
patents seek limits to a global trade accord, searching for insulin in 
Chad.'' As one reads the article, it is shameful.
  Let me just read a couple of paragraphs for the benefit of Members. 
``Wealthier countries where drugs are produced and patented promised 18 
months ago at global trade talks in Qatar to loosen patent restrictions 
in order to ease shortages and reduce prices. It was just after 
September 11, and the U.S. led the rhetorical charge, eager to 
demonstrate its desire to battle suffering among the world's poor while 
mounting a war on terrorism. But last December when all of the other 
143 countries in the World Trade Organization had lined up behind a new 
plan on the trade of medicines, the United States blocked the proposal.
  ``The Bush administration, under heavy lobbying from the 
pharmaceutical industry seeking to limit the scope of the deal, 
endorsed a list of some 20 infectious diseases, and that was it. That 
was all they were willing to address. These included HIV-AIDS, malaria, 
tuberculosis, typhus, hemorrhagic fever, and others categorized as 
epidemics in the developing countries, but that was it. Drug 
manufacturers feared that without the limitation, the deal could lead 
to a broader undermining of their lucrative patent rights. Poor nations 
were outraged.''
  Mr. Speaker, we should be outraged. As we speak, there are people 
suffering from diabetes in the country of Chad in sub-Saharan Africa 
that cannot get insulin. It is time for us to take control of this 
issue. For too long we have allowed the special interests and some of 
the misinformed people over at the FDA to sort of box us into a corner 
so Americans now pay the world's highest prices. We are the world's 
best customers, but yet we pay the highest prices for prescription 
drugs.
  Do not just take my word for it. We were in Munich, Germany, about a 
month ago, and we bought and I have the receipt here for what we paid 
for these drugs. Let me take this drug, Cipro, which we all know about 
after the anthrax scare. In Germany, at the Munich airport, we paid 
35.12 Euros for this product. That is about $34. This same product in 
the United States sells for $60. The average price in the United 
States, according to one study, is over $80. We paid $34.
  Let me take Coumadin, and this is a drug that my father takes, made 
by DuPont. This drug in the United States, the average price is over 
$64. In Munich, Germany, we bought this drug for 20.43 Euros. That 
works out to about $19 in American currency; $64 in the United States, 
$20 in Europe.
  Glucophage, a marvelous drug for diabetics, which we bought in 
Germany for $5. This drug can cost as much as $100 here in the United 
States of America.
  But here is the one that really got to me. This is a drug called 
Tamoxifen, probably the most effective drug we have ever seen on the 
market in treating and perhaps preventing breast cancer among women. It 
is a miracle drug, and we are thankful it exists. We bought this drug 
at the Munich Airport pharmacy for $59.05 American. This same drug here 
in the United States sells for $360 for the same box; $60 in Germany, 
$360 in the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not shame on the pharmaceutical industry, it is 
shame on us. We have created an environment where we permit these 
companies to literally run roughshod over American consumers.
  Let me add one other thing about this drug, American taxpayers paid 
for almost all of the R&D costs to have it developed. In fact, the 
company originally said they would not patent it because it was the 
taxpayers who paid for the R&D. But I guess they have patented it.
  I will yield back the balance of my time, but I will be back; and I 
have a bill that will begin to resolve this, and I hope all Members, 
Democrats and Republicans, will join me in cosponsoring that 
legislation.

                          ____________________