[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 67 (Thursday, May 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2991-H2992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     LOWERING COSTS BY ALLOWING REIMPORTATION OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week, prescription discount drug 
cards became available under Medicare. Should America's seniors and 
disabled Americans take a look at the new discount cards? Absolutely. 
Are discount cards a substitute for giving Americans access to safe, 
effective and affordable drugs? Absolutely not.
  Some seniors and disabled Americans will probably save some money 
with the discount cards, but some cards may not cover the drugs that 
you use, and which drugs they cover and how big their discounts are may 
change once a week without notice, even though every senior will have 
to keep the same card the whole year. Even if your card covers your 
medicine, it may mean little, because the drug companies have already 
jacked the prices up 15, 20, or 25 percent.
  President Bush and the FDA and our government allowed drug prices to 
go up 20 or 25 or 30 percent a year, yet then they say we are going to 
give a drug discount of 5, 10, or 15 percent. What a deal. At least it 
is a good deal for the drug companies, if not America's seniors.
  What to do instead is to allow reimportation; allow American 
wholesalers, American drug retailers to go in the world market and buy 
their prescription drugs from countries which actually do something to 
bring down drug prices.
  Last year, a solid, bipartisan majority in this House passed a solid 
drug importation bill issuing a declaration of independence from the 
drug industry. But President Bush said no and the Republican leadership 
said no.
  Last month, a bipartisan coalition introduced a comprehensive bill 
that could win an importation vote in the other body, but President 
Bush said no, and again the Republican leadership said no.
  The Bush administration, the FDA, and opponents of free markets in 
medicine say importation is unsafe. They have claimed that drugs sold 
in Canada and France and Germany, Israel, and Japan are not safe. Yet 
have we ever read a story about a Canadian or a French person or a 
German or a Japanese or an Israeli dropping dead in the streets of 
their countries because a drug is contaminated? Of course not. Those 
countries have FDAs similar to ours to protect the safety of their 
drugs.
  Seniors in Ohio and throughout the country, in spite of the Bush 
administration claiming these drugs are unsafe on behalf of the drug 
industry, in spite of the FDA saying these drugs are unsafe, again on 
behalf of the prescription drug industry, seniors understand from 
personal experience that medicine sold in Canadian pharmacist is the 
same effective medicine sold here. It just happens to be one-third, 
one-half, one-fourth, sometimes, the price.
  Now, the Bush administration and opponents of free markets in 
medicine say U.S. prices are high because other countries have forced 
the drug companies to sell the drugs for less there. They actually 
argue that if they can get drug prices higher in Australia and France 
and Germany that then the drug makers will just drop the price to 
Americans.
  In fact, the Bush administration is putting pressure on the 
Australian Government through the negotiation of a trade agreement for 
the Australians to raise the prices they are paying to these drug 
companies for their drugs, with the implicit understanding, if you 
believe this, that the U.S. drug companies will voluntarily lower their 
prices.
  Johns Hopkins University health economist Gerald Anderson told the 
Wall Street Journal last week, Say that you are the Pfizer CEO, and you 
go to your board and say, guess what? We just got a great deal in 
Australia on our drugs, so we are going to lower our prices in the U.S. 
You would be fired if you were the CEO of Pfizer and said that. Of 
course they are not going to do that.
  These are giant multinational corporations whose profit margins dwarf 
the profit margins of any other industry in America. Drug companies in 
2001 earned profit margins of 18 percent, three times the profit 
margins of other Fortune 500 companies. This has been the most 
profitable industry in America for 20 years running, with the lowest 
tax rates. They are companies that clearly have had taxpayers in this 
country do a lot of their research and development, yet they continue 
to charge Americans more than any other country in the world.
  The reason for that is that the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President 
has simply stood by and let the drug companies continue to raise 
prices. It might have something to do with the fact that the drug 
industry gives George Bush millions of dollars for his campaign. The 
word on the street in Washington is that President Bush will get $100 
million from the drug industry for his reelection.

[[Page H2992]]

  My Republican friends on the other side of the aisle, especially 
their leadership, have raised millions of dollars from the drug 
industry. As a result, the drug industry and the insurance industry 
wrote the Medicare bill. That is why the Medicare bill simply will not 
work the way that it should, that is why drug profits continued to go 
up, that is why seniors continue to pay two and three and four times 
what they do in Canada.
  We have got to break the leash and the connection between the drug 
industry and the Republican Party and President Bush.

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