[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15095]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, while some Members of the Senate are 
conversing about the schedule, I want to take a moment and comment 
today on a couple of items that have appeared in today's newspapers 
related to a very important matter that we will be addressing soon. The 
first item appeared in the Wall Street Journal:

       ``Drug benefit costs for large employers are expected to 
     jump 22.5 percent for employees and 23.4 percent for retirees 
     over the next year,'' according to a survey of 61 companies.

  Drug costs are expected to jump 22.5 percent in a single year for 
employees and employers.
  The second item is a full-page ad that appeared in the Washington 
Post today. This ad is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and 
Manufacturers of America. It says:

       One of these pills is a counterfeit. Can you guess which 
     one?

  And then it says:

       Congress is about to permit the wholesale importation of 
     drugs from Mexico and Canada. The personal health of American 
     consumers is unquestionably at risk. Counterfeit prescription 
     drugs will inevitably make their way across our borders and 
     into our medicine cabinets. Counterfeit prescription drugs 
     can kill. Counterfeit drugs have killed.

  This is from the big pharmaceutical manufacturers. What they are 
alleging is that it would be unsafe to allow those in this country who 
want to go to Canada to access a supply of prescription drugs from a 
drugstore in Winnipeg that was originally made in the United States, in 
a plant inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, and then put in 
a bottle and sent to a pharmacy in Canada.
  It would not be unsafe. It would be cheaper, but not unsafe. Here is 
the issue. This is a global economy, we are told, and the 
pharmaceutical industry certainly benefits from that global economy. 
They buy their chemicals all around the world to get the best prices, 
and they should. They use these chemicals to produce wonderful, life-
saving medicines. Then they ship that medicine all around the world. 
They ship it to Pembina, ND, and to Emerson, Manitoba in Canada. Those 
two communities are about 5 miles apart. For the same medicine, 
produced in the same manufacturing plant by the same company, in the 
same dosage strength, put in the same bottle, the manufacturers will 
charge the U.S. consumer triple, double, or quadruple the price charged 
the Canadian consumer.
  The question is this: Why should an American citizen have to go to 
Canada to buy a drug that was produced in the United States in order to 
find that they will save 50 to 70 percent on the price of that same 
drug? The answer is that they should not have to go to Canada to do 
that. There ought to be fairer pricing of prescription drugs in this 
country.
  There is a little sweetheart law on the books in this country that 
needs to be amended. This law says that the only entity that can re-
import prescription drugs into the United States is its manufacturer. 
So when a pharmaceutical manufacturer makes a drug in the United States 
and ships it to Canada for sale at a fraction of the price--and that is 
because Canada won't allow them to sell it at the price at which they 
sell it in the United States--they are able to say to pharmacists and 
drug wholesalers in the United States that they can't go to Canada and 
buy it and bring it back and pass the savings along to their customers. 
Even though it is the same drug, made in a plant in the United States, 
and the plant is approved by the FDA, they can't bring it back from 
Canada. Why? Because a law in this country prevents that. Talk about a 
sweetheart deal.
  Some of us want to amend that law. Some Republicans and Democrats 
have come together on legislation to allow pharmacists and drug 
wholesalers to import FDA-approved medicines. So in response, the 
pharmaceutical industry spent a fortune putting full-page ads in 
newspapers today, saying this is about ``counterfeit medicine'' that 
will kill people. What a sack of lies. There is no counterfeit medicine 
problem here. We are talking about the importation of prescription 
drugs in this country only in instances where the chain of custody has 
been assured and guaranteed.
  This is the most profitable industry in the world, and I understand 
that it wants to protect its profits. I think the drug companies do a 
lot of wonderful things. But I don't think it is wonderful when they 
tell senior citizens in this country--all citizens, for that matter, 
but especially senior citizens--we have a life-saving drug, but you 
will pay double the price of what we charge anywhere else in the world. 
That is not fair. But it happens all the time.
  What we ought to do is decide that if this is a global economy, it is 
a global economy for senior citizens and for pharmacists, as long as we 
assure the chain of custody and resolve the issue of safety.
  A pharmacist in Grand Forks, ND, cannot go to Winnipeg, Canada, to 
buy the same pill, in the same bottle, made in the same manufacturing 
plant, and bring it back and pass the savings along to senior citizens. 
Senior citizens are 12 percent of our population, yet they use one-
third of all the prescription drugs in this country. They have reached 
their retirement years, the years in which their incomes are limited, 
and they discover that they must pay the highest prices for 
prescription drugs of any group of consumers in the world. That is not 
fair.
  Miracle drugs only perform miracles if you can afford to take them. 
Life-saving drugs only save lives if you can afford to access those 
drugs. I have had hearings all across this country, and I have heard 
identical testimony in every State. Senior citizens tell me: When I go 
to the grocery store, I must first go to the pharmacy at the back of 
the store to buy my prescription drugs because only then will I know 
how much money I have left to pay for food. Only then will I know how 
much money I have left with which to eat.
  That is happening all across this country. The folks in the 
pharmaceutical industry want to continue to charge U.S. consumers 
double, triple, or quadruple the prices they impose upon citizens of 
other countries. That is not fair. We ought to change it.
  In the appropriations bill when it was considered by the House, the 
House enacted two amendments to essentially prevent the FDA from 
enforcing the current law.
  In the Senate, there will be an amendment offered by one of my 
Republican colleagues, myself, and others. The Senate amendment would 
also allow pharmacists and drug wholesalers to import prescription 
drugs that were produced in the United States, in plants that are 
approved by the FDA, but it includes provisions to ensure this is done 
in a safe manner. We hope enough Members of the Senate will agree so 
that we will be able to get this done in the coming days.
  I yield the floor.

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