[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H1449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               OPIOID CRISIS AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

  (Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico asked and was given 
permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend 
her remarks.)
  Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, we continue to 
see pharmaceutical companies put profits over people. Even though 
33,000 people are dying every year due to the opioid crisis, Kaleo 
Pharma raised the price of a lifesaving opioid overdose medication from 
$690 in 2014 to $4,500 this year.
  The pharmaceutical industry has not only misled consumers and their 
providers to create a system where there are more opioid prescriptions 
than adults in the United States, but they are now jacking up the price 
of lifesaving drugs and making money on this opioid crisis that they 
helped, in fact, create.
  Meanwhile, the costs of the opioid epidemic fall on States, cities, 
communities, hospitals, counties, courts, and local communities who, 
quite frankly, do not have the resources to keep up.
  This is why I introduced a bill which would impose a fee on the 
production of opioids and use the revenue for opioid prevention, 
treatment, and research programs across the country.
  Pharmaceutical companies have to be part of solving the problem that 
they helped cause and to give back to the communities that opioids have 
ravaged.

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