[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  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, once again I rise tonight to talk about 
what Americans pay for prescription drugs compared to what the rest of 
the industrialized world pays for those same prescription drugs.
  And for those who were watching on Sunday night the television show 
``60 Minutes,'' there was a very interesting segment, and it featured 
Dr. Peter Rost, who is both an M.D. and a VP of a very large 
pharmaceutical company. And what Dr. Rost talked about last night on 
``60 Minutes'' is the same subject that I and many Members of this 
House have been talking about for several years, and that is that 
Americans pay by far and away much more for prescription drugs than 
consumers in any other industrialized country.
  I do not know how well Members can see this, but this chart has five 
of the most commonly prescribed prescription drugs today; and it has 
prices from London, from Athens, and from the United States. And what 
we see on these charts is we really have three different price levels. 
We see the price, for example, of Lipitor in London is $40.88. That 
same Lipitor, which incidentally Dr. Rost talked about and is made in 
Ireland, all of it is imported somewhere because it is all made in 
Ireland; but in London, $40.88; in Athens, $55.65; but a month's supply 
in the United States is $76.41.

                              {time}  1915

  You look at the entire list and then you total them up, the five most 
commonly prescribed drugs. In London, those five drugs are $195 U.S. In 
Athens, they are $231 in American dollars. Here in the United States, 
$507.
  Mr. Speaker, the chart can get worse, too. If you look at what we 
see, for example, in Germany, and these numbers again are from earlier 
this year, when you compare on this chart we have 10 of the most 
commonly-prescribed drugs brought at the Metropolitan Pharmacy in 
Frankfort, Germany, and this is essentially just coming in off the 
street, not expecting any special discount either in the United States 
or here, but those 10 in the United States total $1,040. In Germany, 
you can buy the same drugs for $455.57.
  Mr. Speaker, it really is time that we do what they do in Europe. It 
is called parallel trading. For Members, if we can work out the 
legalities, we are going to try to make available to Members a copy of 
that 60 Minutes segment so people can see for themselves and hear from 
somebody who is actually a pharmaceutical insider.
  As I say, he is now a VP of marketing of one of the largest 
pharmaceutical companies in the world. He formerly though worked in 
Europe for a big pharmaceutical company, and he was involved in what is 
called parallel trading. That creates a competitive marketplace. 
Because, at the end of the day, we Americans understand it does cost 
money to develop these new drugs, and we are willing to pay our fair 
share. We ought to be willing to subsidize the starving people in Sub-
Saharan Africa. We should not be forced to subsidize the starving 
Swiss.
  Americans deserve world-class drugs at world market prices. The time 
has come to open up markets and allow Americans to have access to these 
drugs. When we do, you will see the prices balanced so that the prices 
in Europe are probably going to go up a little, but the prices here in 
the United States will go down dramatically.
  Please join me in this important effort.

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