[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 10, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S384-S385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DORGAN (for himself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kennedy, 
        Mr. McCain, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Specter, Mr. Bingaman, Ms. 
        Collins, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. 
        Pryor, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Levin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Obama, 
        Mr. Wyden, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Brown, Mr. Feingold, Mr. 
        Inouye, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Salazar, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Boxer, 
        and Mr. Tester):
  S. 242. A bill to amend the Federal food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with 
respect to the importation of prescription drugs, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have come to the floor for just a couple 
of minutes to describe a piece of legislation that I and Senator 
Olympia Snowe have introduced today with 30 of our colleagues in the 
Senate dealing with the issue of drug reimportation.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to show on the floor of the 
Senate a couple of bottles.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. I would like to show two bottles that contained Lipitor, 
a drug that most of us know is a cholesterol-lowering drug. Lipitor is 
made by a company in a plant--in this case in Ireland--and in Ireland 
they put Lipitor in these two bottles, and they send the Lipitor in 
this bottle to Canada, and they send the Lipitor in this bottle to the 
United States.
  The difference? Well, there is no difference. It is the same pill, 
put in the same bottle, made by the same company, an FDA-approved drug. 
The difference is the United States consumer pays 65 percent more for 
this drug than the consumer in Canada.
  But it is not just Lipitor. And it is not just a plant in Ireland by 
this company that produces it and sends it to here and then to Canada, 
and charges the American consumer the highest prices. It is virtually 
all of the brand drugs. And in virtually every case, the American 
consumer is paying the highest prices for prescription drugs--the 
highest prices in the world.
  My colleague, Senator Snowe and I and many others in this Chamber--
Senator Stabenow, Senator Kennedy, Senator McCain, and so many others--
30 Senators have introduced this legislation that allows the 
reimportation of FDA-approved drugs--produced in FDA-inspected plants--
allows the reimportation of those lower priced prescription drugs into 
this country. It allows American consumers to take advantage of the 
global economy by buying that FDA-approved drug where it is sold for a 
fraction of the price.
  One day, some while ago, on a beautiful summer day, outside of Oakes, 
ND, I was meeting with a group of farmers. At this farmyard, we were 
sitting on bales of straw and having a long discussion, and there was 
one older fellow there in his eighties, early eighties. He said to me: 
My wife has been suffering from breast cancer for 3 years. She is an 
elderly woman battling breast cancer now for 3 years. For 3 years, we 
have driven from the southern part of North Dakota into Canada to buy 
Tamoxifen for my wife to treat this breast cancer. She needs this 
medicine to fight the breast cancer, and the only way we can afford it 
is for us to get in the car and drive to Canada and buy Tamoxifen at 20 
percent of the price we would have to pay in this country.
  American consumers should not have to do that. They ought to be 
allowed to reimport prescription drugs that are made in FDA-approved 
plants and are FDA-approved drugs.
  The legislation we have introduced today is necessary. I do not want 
American consumers to have to purchase prescription drugs elsewhere. I 
want them to be able to purchase them in this country at a fair price. 
The problem is, we are now paying the highest prices in the world. If 
we allow the reimportation, it will put downward pressure on prices in 
this country. That is our real goal.

[[Page S385]]

  Now the Congressional Budget Office has done a study. They tell us 
that brandname drugs cost 35 to 55 percent less in most other countries 
than they do in the United States. The AARP, American Association of 
Retired Persons, has done a study showing the drugs most frequently 
used by senior citizens in our country have increased by a 6.3-percent 
price increase from June 2005 to June 2006--double the rate of 
inflation.
  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if we pas the 
legislation we have now introduced today, there will be a savings of 
about $50 billion in direct savings over the next decade for American 
consumers, with $6.1 billion of that savings to the Federal budget.
  So we believe this is important. We have been blocked from getting 
this legislation through the Congress for some long while. The 
leadership of this institution supports it. The legislation is 
bipartisan--broadly bipartisan.
  Now let me say one other thing. Some people say, and particularly the 
pharmaceutical industry says, this cannot be done safely, it will 
jeopardize safety for American consumers. Well, let me say that the 
consumers in the European countries have been doing this for 20, 25 
years. There is something called parallel trading. They have been doing 
it for 20, 25 years without any issues of safety. If you want to buy a 
drug in Spain, and you live in France, no problem. If you want to buy a 
drug in Italy, and you live in Germany, no problem. They have been 
doing that--called parallel trading--for 25 years. Surely, we can 
accomplish that in this country as well.
  Let me show a couple of charts, briefly.
  First, Americans are charged the highest prices in the world. This 
one chart compares it to Canada: Lipitor, Prevacid, Zocor, Zoloft, 
Celebrex. I will not go through the entire list.
  Dr. Peter Rost, vice president of marketing for Pfizer, came to 
Washington, and here is what he said:

       The biggest argument against reimportation is safety. What 
     everyone has conveniently forgotten to tell you is that in 
     Europe reimportation of drugs has been in place for 20 years.

  He went on to say there is not any issue of safety.
  And, finally, the American Association of Retired Persons endorses 
the legislation we have introduced today. I will not read all of that.
  But the final chart shows what is happening with respect to spending 
on prescription drugs, and where it is heading, and why we ought to do 
something to give consumers the opportunity to see fair prices on 
prescription drugs.
  Miracle drugs offer no miracles to those who cannot afford to buy 
them. I have no brief against the pharmaceutical industry. I want them 
to keep producing lifesaving, miracle drugs for this country. In fact, 
we produce a great deal of public spending in the NIH and elsewhere 
that gives them the research base for which a good number of those 
drugs is produced.
  But let me also say that the pharmaceutical industry owes the 
American consumer a fair deal. We should not be paying the highest 
prices in the world for prescription drugs. It is not fair. And if the 
pharmaceutical industry is going to use a global economy in order to 
move its commodities and its various ingredients for prescription drugs 
around the world to produce in Ireland or to produce here or in Puerto 
Rico, then the American people ought to be able to use the global 
economy to get a better price on FDA-approved drugs.
  We have waited a long while. I have worked on this I guess 6 or 8 
years. We have been blocked repeatedly from getting a vote in the 
Congress, both in the House and the Senate. Now we have introduced, 
with broad, bipartisan support, an identical piece of legislation in 
the House and in the Senate.
  I believe we will get a vote in both bodies and pass legislation and 
send it to the President of the United States. It will save $50 billion 
over the next decade on prescription drug bills for the American 
people, save the Federal Government $5 billion or $6 billion in 
spending, and give a fair deal to the American people that they will be 
able to buy prescription drugs at a fair price.
  Mr. President, I look forward to consideration of this measure in the 
Senate. I am pleased on behalf of my colleague Senator Snowe and myself 
and a broad group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to push 
this legislation.
  I see Senator Sanders is here, and I know she has worked on this 
issue for a long while as well. We have a broad, bipartisan group. We 
are going to push this and get this done in this session of Congress.
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