[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 186 (Friday, December 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S12978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICING

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to speak about 
something a colleague of mine spoke about last night, which I think he 
believes separates us when, in fact, it doesn't.
  Before I do that, I wish to talk for a moment about the amendment of 
mine now pending on the floor of the Senate, dealing with the issue of 
prescription drug pricing.
  I offered this amendment, along with my colleague, Senator Snowe, 
with the support of a broad bipartisan group of Members of the Senate--
Republicans and Democrats--at a time when there has been so few 
bipartisan amendments. The amendment I have offered is, in fact, 
bipartisan and had bipartisan speeches in favor of it in the last 
several days. That is unusual, but I think it is also refreshing.
  The amendment is very simple. It has been around for a long time. It 
has been hard to get passed because the pharmaceutical industry is a 
very strong, assertive industry. It is a good industry, but I have 
strong disagreements with their pricing policies. This amendment simply 
says the American people ought to have the freedom to access FDA-
approved drugs wherever they are sold--as long as they are FDA 
approved--and offered at a fraction of the price they are sold at in 
the United States.
  I ask unanimous consent to show on the floor, once again, two bottles 
of pills.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. This bottle contained Lipitor, perhaps the most popular 
cholesterol-lowering drug in the world. This was made by an American 
company in an Irish plant--made in Ireland and shipped around the 
world. This bottle, as you can see, is identical to this one. One has a 
red label and one has a blue label.
  The only difference in a circumstance, where you have the same pill, 
put in the same bottle, made by the same company, is the price. 
Americans pay $4.78 per tablet and, in this case, folks in another 
country pay $2.05. Why the difference? Again, it is not just one 
country. This bottle is shipped to virtually every other country, 
including Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, and it is sold 
at a much lower price.
  The question is, Should the American people be required to pay the 
highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and not have the 
freedom to access those drugs in the global marketplace?
  Some say: Well, if you did that--if you allow the American people to 
access that drug from Canada or Germany at a fraction of the price, we 
would get counterfeit drugs.
  It is interesting that in our amendment we actually have more safety 
provisions than exist in our domestic drug supply. There does not now 
exist a tracing capability, pedigree, or batch lots. That would be a 
part of our amendment. That doesn't exist for America's drug supply 
today. We will actually improve the safety of the drug supply with this 
amendment.
  I didn't offer this amendment to cause trouble for people. I know 
this is causing great angst in the Senate. We have been tied up several 
days now on this issue. I know the pharmaceutical industry has a great 
deal of clout. This issue revolves around $100 billion, $19 billion of 
which will be saved by the Federal Government in the next 10 years and 
nearly $80 billion saved by the American consumers because they can 
access FDA prescription drugs at a fraction of the price.
  So I understand why some are fighting hard to prevent this. But this 
is important public policy. The price of prescription drugs has gone up 
9 percent this year alone. Every single year, the price of prescription 
drugs goes up. Every year since 2002, drug price increases have risen 
above the rate of inflation. We can't, in my judgment, pass health care 
reform through the Congress and say: Yes, we did that, but we did 
nothing about the relentless increases in the price of prescription 
drugs. We will solve that not by imposing price controls but by giving 
the American people freedom. They are told it is a global economy. 
Well, it is a global economy for everything except the American people 
trying to access prescription drugs at a fraction of the price in most 
other countries.
  Again, I didn't offer this amendment to try to cause trouble; I 
offered this amendment to try to solve a problem. This Congress should 
not, in my judgment, move ahead with health care reform and decide it 
ought to leave the question of the American people paying the highest 
prices for prescription drugs--leave that alone and let that continue 
to be the case for the next 10 years or the next 20 years. I will speak 
more about it later.

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