[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 8, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2733-S2734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Madam President, on another matter--relatively shorter compared to 
what I just said about flooding--millions of Americans rely on 
lifesaving prescription medicine.
  I am here to report to my colleagues what Secretary Azar announced 
earlier today about making available information on the price of drugs 
on television advertising that you see so often about drugs--all kinds 
of information but not much information about what a drug costs, and 
the public ought to know that.
  Americans across the country expect and depend upon breakthrough 
drugs to live longer, healthier lives; however, these miracle medicines 
won't save lives if people can't afford to take them.
  As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I have been taking a 
close look at the drug supply chain in the United States. I am working 
to lower drug prices.
  By the way, this is being handled in not only a bipartisan way in our 
committee, but I believe this will also end up being very bicameral. 
The Finance Committee has held a series of hearings on this issue. So 
far, we have heard from economists, executives from the pharmaceutical 
industry, and pharmacy benefit managers. I have also introduced a 
handful of bipartisan bills to increase competition. These bills are 
bipartisan, and now we are finding they are even bicameral. In fact, 
the House of Representatives tends to be ahead of us here in the Senate 
on these issues, so there is bipartisan momentum going to help us 
accomplish our goals.
  Perhaps more importantly--and I don't think he gets enough credit for 
this--we also have President Trump leading the battle from the White 
House, based on a speech he made in June last year and based on several 
steps Secretary Azar has taken to carry out the edict from President 
Trump to lower the prices of prescription drugs. What was announced 
today is the most recent step in that direction. I am going to get to 
that in just a minute.
  There is one common denominator contributing to the high prices 
Americans pay for prescription drugs. It boils down to one word--
secrecy. What Secretary Azar did today is attacking that secrecy. There 
is zero price transparency in the U.S. healthcare system.

  In our system of free enterprise, competition and transparency drives 
innovation. It drives higher quality, and it lowers costs. Americans 
have to hunt for a good bargain. You can bet your bottom dollar, Iowans 
know where to fill up their gasoline tanks, and they do it, in most 
instances, I will bet, at the most affordable place. When there is no 
transparency, there is no price comparison. That is a big reason there 
is sticker shock at the pharmacy counter, and American consumers and 
taxpayers are of course paying the price.
  The pharmaceutical industry spends a boatload on direct-to-consumer 
advertising, which is to the tune of $6 billion a year. That is 
probably why the average American today sees nine prescription drug ads 
every day. The Food and Drug Administration regulates these ads for 
truthfulness and requires the disclosure of side effects, but the 
industry however is not required to disclose to consumers how much 
drugs cost. Now that is about to change, and that happened this 
morning.
  I am glad Secretary Azar is making good on President Trump's 
commitment to lower drug prices for Americans that he announced in a 
speech last

[[Page S2734]]

June. Health and Human Services has finalized its rule to require price 
disclosure on TV ads for prescription drugs. Price transparency is a 
critical remedy to help cure the high cost of prescription drugs in 
America. These regulations will help toward that. It is not a final 
solution.
  Final solutions are going to come in bipartisan and bicameral 
legislation that we are going to consider later this year. Just to 
throw out a compliment to Senator Durbin of Illinois, because he and I 
worked on this very subject that Senator Azar announced a solution for 
by regulation, we tried to get this in a requirement in legislation 
that went to the President last year. We did get it through the U.S. 
Senate. It did not get through the House of Representatives. Secretary 
Azar found, through reading laws we passed many years ago, that he had 
the authority to do what the House of Representatives a year ago didn't 
have guts enough to do--take on the pharmaceutical companies--because 
they opposed the Durbin-Grassley amendment. Now it has been done as a 
result of regulation by Secretary Azar, which is the direct result of 
instructions given to Secretary Azar by President Trump back in June of 
last year that we have to do something to reduce drug prices.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). The Senator from New Hampshire.