[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 125 (Wednesday, October 6, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      COMMENDING Rx NEW HAMPSHIRE

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                          HON. CHARLES F. BASS

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 2004

  Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend six months of operation of 
Rx New Hampshire, a website and program designed to bring affordable 
prescription drug costs to New Hampshire residents. Launched on April 
5, 2004, it has already hosted more than 14,000 visits and is 
responsible for hundreds of anecdotal cases of Granite Staters using 
the information to save on their needed medications.
  New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson is a leader on this issue and has 
demonstrated that affordable prescription drugs and safety are not 
mutually exclusive goals. In order to provide citizens with the 
confidence to use any of the screened pharmacies located in Canada 
listed on the State website at http://www.state.nh.us/governor/
prescription/prescription.httnl, Governor Benson directed the New 
Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to identify only 
those Canadian pharmacies that meet strict domestic and international 
accreditation standards. Onsite inspections of facilities in Canada 
have also been performed by independent New Hampshire pharmacists for 
each listed provider. Samples have been bought and shipped through the 
normal process and were analyzed for active ingredients at the NH State 
Police Forensic Laboratory and examined by the NH Board of Pharmacy. No 
significant difference between these drugs and a duplicate prescription 
list that was filled from local U.S. chain pharmacies was found.
  For more information, I have linked the prescription drug section of 
my Congressional Web site at www.house.gov/bass to the Rx New Hampshire 
page and urge my House colleagues and all Americans to visit and 
examine the good work and solutions offered in the Granite State.
  I again call on Congress and the Federal Drug Administration to adopt 
importation policies that do not stand in the way of such innovative 
and proven solutions to these growing costs. I am certain that Governor 
Benson and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services 
would be willing to lend their expertise to any other State or Federal 
agency wise enough to follow their lead.

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