[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BRING DOWN AMERICA'S DRUG PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCaul of Texas). 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 
prescription drugs, and more importantly about what Americans pay for 
prescription drugs compared to consumers in other industrialized 
countries.
  I have this chart, and I know that on television it is a little hard 
for the Members who are watching their offices to see these numbers, 
but if you go to my Web site at gil.house.gov, you can see this chart 
and other comparisons that we have, not only with the United States and 
Germany, as this chart is, but with other countries, because we now 
have pharmacists literally around the world who regularly share with us 
what their prices are for prescription drugs.
  What you see here are 10 of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the 
United States. You can buy those drugs in Frankfurt, Germany for 
$455.57. Those same 10 drugs here in the United States are $1,040.04. 
Americans pay 128 percent more for the same drugs made in the same 
plants under the same FDA approval.
  Let me give you one example we have talked about before: Zocor, an 
excellent drug. Many heart patients take Zocor. As a matter of fact, 
some of our colleagues here in Congress take Zocor. And depending on 
what Federal program you are under, you can be paying a copay of $30 
for that drug. Federal Members of Congress may be paying $30 when 
consumers in Germany can walk into the Metropolitan Pharmacy in 
Frankfurt, Germany, and they can buy that drug for $23.80.
  The copay here in the United States, in many cases, is $30. The 
regular price in Rochester, Minnesota, for that drug, $85.39. And 
again, these are the same drugs, made in the same plants with the same 
FDA approval. What is wrong with this picture?
  Well, what is wrong with this picture is that American consumers are 
held hostage. In countries like Germany, they have what is called 
parallel trade. So a pharmacist in Frankfurt, for example, if they want 
to buy that Zocor, if they can buy that Zocor in Sweden cheaper than 
they can buy it from the distributors in Germany, they are allowed to 
do that.
  That creates a competitive marketplace. That is what we are trying to 
encourage with the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act. Now, our Founders 
understood that the Federal Government is created by the States and not 
the other way around.
  But the States in many cases have been referred to as the laboratory 
of democracy. And the interesting thing is State governments, and more 
importantly the Governors of those States, are not standing by idly.
  What they are doing is they are creating their own programs. In 
Illinois, in Kansas, in my own State of Minnesota, Minnesotans now have 
access to buying drugs from Canada, and they recently added Great 
Britain.
  The I-SaveRx program, now in Illinois, includes Canada, the United 
Kingdom, and Ireland. Now, many of the people here in Washington, our 
own FDA says that is not safe. Well, some of these States have now over 
a year of experience and they have demonstrated that this can be done 
safely.
  The list goes on. Missouri, Nevada, I think was just signed into law 
either yesterday or today, the law takes effect July 1st, so that 
people in Nevada will have access to drugs from foreign countries at 
much more competitive prices. New Hampshire, North Dakota has joined 
the list. We now have 11 States, and we do not know how many cities 
have joined this list.
  But it really is time for us at the Federal level to do our job to 
make sure that Americans have access to world-class drugs at world-
market prices. Mr. Speaker, this is not a mystery. It can be done. What 
we know is that the Europeans are not intrinsically smarter than we 
are.
  If they figured out how to do this parallel trade, we can do it as 
well. Mr. Speaker, it is time for Americans to have access to these 
drugs at 128 percent cheaper than they can buy them in the United 
States.

                          ____________________