[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 101 (Thursday, July 10, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H6583-H6584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

  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 again tonight to talk about the 
price that Americans pay for prescription drugs relative to the rest of 
the world.
  As I have often said, I think we as Americans ought to be willing to 
pay our fair share. But as Members can see, and I apologize for this 
chart, the numbers are a bit hard to read for Members who are watching 
on C-SPAN in their offices, but if you cannot read the chart, it is 
available on my Website. Simply go to gil.house.gov, and Members can 
review this chart.
  This is a chart essentially showing the prices that we paid for 
prescription drugs, 10 of the most commonly prescribed prescription 
drugs, when I was in Germany 2 months ago. Then we asked some of the 
local pharmacies here in Washington how much those same drugs, same 
dosage and number of tablets, would be here in the United States.
  Let us take this drug, Coumadin. This is a drug that was developed 
originally at the University of Wisconsin veterinarian schools. It was 
a rat poison. It was designed to help kill rats. It is a blood thinner. 
When they consume it, they mix it with feed, and the rats eat it, and 
they go back to their dens and bleed to death internally. It was found 
that in small dose dosages this was very effective for people with 
heart conditions. My 86-year-old father takes Coumadin. We bought this 
drug in Germany for $21 American. This same package here in the United 
States sells for $89.95.
  Glucophage is another drug we bought in Germany. It is an effective 
drug against diabetes, borderline diabetes. I am not a doctor, and I do 
not play one here in Congress, but we bought this drug in Germany, 30 
tablets, 850 milligrams, for $5. That same drug here in the United 
States sells for $29.95 for the same package. The report goes on and 
on.
  Prozac, we had a relatively small difference. We bought Prozac for 
$36.46, but here in the United States it was $49.95.
  But then a drug like Pravachol, the price we paid in Germany was 
$62.96. That same drug and same dosage in the United States is not $62 
but $149.95.

[[Page H6584]]

  My wife takes a drug called Synthroid. She has a problem with goiter. 
Synthroid in the United States, 50 tablets of 50 milligrams sells for 
about $21.95. You can buy that exact same drug probably made in the 
same plant under the same FDA approval in Germany for only $4. So 
$21.95 in the United States, $4 in Germany.
  Then I come to the one that really chaps my hide because we hear 
about the reason these drugs are so expensive is because it is so 
expensive to develop them, the research and development costs. And I 
recognize there are costs, but let us talk about tamoxifen, which was 
essentially developed by the NIH. So we paid for it. The American 
taxpayers paid for virtually all of the research and development. We 
bought 60 tablets, 20 milligrams of tamoxifen in Munich, Germany, for 
$60. That same drug in the same package sells in the United States for 
$360.
  Now, tamoxifen is a very effective drug against women's breast 
cancer. We are happy to pay our fair share for the research costs; but 
as I always say, we ought to be willing to subsidize the poor people in 
sub-Saharan Africa, we should not be required to subsidize the starving 
Swiss.
  And that is what is happening today because American consumers are 
being held captive. Some people ask why are prices so much cheaper in 
Europe. Well, in part they have something called price controls. That 
is part of the answer, but it is not the whole answer. They also allow 
in Germany, for example, they allow German pharmacists to do parallel 
trading. So the German pharmacist can order the drug wherever they can 
get it the cheapest. That is called competition. That is how markets 
work.
  Mr. Speaker, I have introduced a bill called the Market Access Act, 
which would allow American pharmacists and American consumers to have 
that same kind of opportunity to go into the world markets. There are 
roughly 25 countries that are already recognized as having similar FDA-
type regimens as we have in the United States, 25 countries are already 
recognized in the statute, and the bill I have would allow our 
pharmacists and our consumers to have access to those markets.
  It may not be the perfect answer, but if Members do not like my plan, 
what is your plan? What is the administration's plan? What are we going 
to do about this? Because I will tell Members if next year we come 
back, and if Americans are still required to pay six times the amount 
for the same anticancer drug, they are not going to say shame on the 
pharmaceutical industry, they are going to say shame on us.
  The time has come to make certain that Americans have access to 
world-class drugs at world market prices.

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