[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1256-S1257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET ACCESS AND FAIR TRADE ACT OF 2005

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the introduction 
of an important piece of legislation that will greatly aid Americans, 
both young and old, with their health care costs. I, along with a 
bipartisan group of Senators, have introduced the Pharmaceutical Market 
Access and Fair Trade Act of 2005. This legislation would provide much 
needed assistance for millions of Americans who are struggling to pay 
for their prescription drugs.
  American consumers are currently charged 55 percent more, on average, 
for the same brand-name medicines sold in other major developed 
countries for a fraction of the price. The Pharmaceutical Market Access 
and Fair Trade Act of 2005 would allow American consumers to benefit 
from international price competition for prescription medicines through 
the reimportation of FDA-approved prescription drugs. This legislation 
allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies and drug wholesalers to

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import medications from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and 
Japan and pass along the savings to their American customers. This 
approach would allow Americans to benefit from lower prices on their 
prescription drugs while still enabling them to use their local 
pharmacy. The bill also allows individual consumers to import 
prescription drugs for their own personal use.
  One of the leading arguments against reimportation has been concerns 
over safety of the prescription drugs that are sold abroad. My 
colleagues and I have addressed this issue by providing strict safety 
measures in this legislation which are intended to guarantee that only 
safe, effective FDA-approved prescription drugs are imported. Such 
provisions would require pharmacies and drug wholesalers to register 
with the FDA and be subject to frequent, random inspections. It would 
allow only the importation of FDA-approved medicines with a ``chain of 
custody'' that can be traced all the way back to an FDA-inspected 
manufacturing plant. It would provide for the use of the 
anticounterfeiting technology to identify safe, legal imported 
medicines, as well as give the FDA resources and authority it needs to 
ensure the safety of imported drugs and to stop those that are unsafe.
  It is very important that the bill this Congress takes up and passes 
will not only become law but also ensure that reimportation is actually 
allowed to occur. This bill ensures that by including features to 
prevent a drug company from blocking importation by making subtle 
changes to a drug, such as changing the color or the place of 
manufacture, so that it is no longer FDA approved.
  It is about time that the Senate takes up this legislation and passes 
it. It has broad bipartisan support and has been subjected to intense 
discussion, review, and debate. We are now faced with health care costs 
nationwide that are spiraling out of control, and we need to take 
action to address this issue. Allowing the safe reimportation of 
prescription drugs is a step in the right direction. The majority of 
the American people support reimportation, and I hope the leadership of 
this body will listen to them and finally provide the relief our 
citizens need.

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