[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7071-7072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Madam Speaker, I want to talk tonight about 
prescription drugs and, most importantly, about prescription drug 
prices.
  We have had some discussion. The good news is, I think here in 
Washington, that there is a growing bipartisan feeling that we need to 
do something particularly for senior citizens about prescription drugs 
this year. The bad news is, it appears to me that we are going to 
continue just to throw good money after bad.
  I have a chart here that describes, I think, what is a big part of 
the problem we have with prescription drugs. These are some comparison 
prices for one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United 
States. It is a drug called Prilosec. They are currently running a 
pretty aggressive advertising campaign. It is the purple pill. If 
someone buys those purple pills in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and again 
these are not my numbers, these are from an HMO in my State called 
Health Partners, but they did some research and found if an individual 
buys a 30-day supply of Prilosec in Minneapolis, Minnesota, they pay 
$99.95. But if someone happens to be vacationing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 
and they take the same prescription into a pharmaceutical drugstore, 
they will pay $50.88. And, if someone happened to be vacationing in 
Guadalajara, Mexico, for exactly the same drug, made in exactly the 
same plant, under the exact same FDA approval, they would pay only 
$17.50.
  As a matter of fact, Health Partners claims that if they could 
recover just half of the savings between the United States and Canada, 
they could save their subscribers $30 million a year.
  When we start applying numbers like that to how much the Federal 
Government spends on prescription drugs every year, last year, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office we, the Federal 
Government, spent over $15 billion on prescription drugs. Now, if we 
are paying 40 percent more than the folks on the north side and the 
south side of our borders, just imagine how much the Federal Government 
could save through Medicare and Medicaid, the VA, and other benefits.
  Let me just run through some of the differences between what we pay 
in the United States for commonly prescribed brand name drugs and what 
they pay in Europe for exactly the same drugs. Premarin, $14.98 here, 
they pay $4.25 in Europe; Synthroid, $13.84 versus $2.95;

[[Page 7072]]

Coumadin, and this is a drug my dad takes, and a lot of senior citizens 
take this, it is a blood thinner, we pay, the average price is $30.25, 
they pay $2.85; Prozac, $36.12, $18.50 over in Europe. Here we get a 
pretty good price, in Minneapolis. They say the average price for 
Prilosec, for a 30-day supply, is $109, in Europe it is $39.25.
  Madam Speaker, the answer to our prescription drug problem in some 
respects does not require a whole new Federal agency. A big part of the 
problem, and I would like to share with Members and anyone who would 
like a copy, we can get a copy of a newsletter that was done by the 
Life Extension Foundation. It is available by calling my office at the 
Capitol or just sending an e-mail. We are easy to get ahold of. But 
this is an interesting little brochure and it talks about the 
differentiation and it really gets down to what the real problem is.
  The real problem is our own FDA. Our own Food and Drug Administration 
is keeping American citizens from bringing prescription drugs across 
the border. I think the best comparison that I can give, let us say, 
for example, that there are three drugstores, one downtown, one on the 
north side of town and one on the south side of town, but our own FDA 
says you can only shop at the one downtown. Even though they are 
charging, according to the Federal Government in the United States, the 
drug companies are charging 56 percent more than the prices in Canada, 
but our own FDA says we cannot shop at a store in Canada.
  Now, the reason this is important is because we have what is called 
the North American Free Trade Agreement. That means the goods and 
services are supposed to go across the border freely. And just about 
all goods and services do, except prescription drugs. Madam Speaker, we 
need to make it easier for seniors and all Americans to get the 
prescriptions that they need and we need to get competitive prices. One 
way we can do that is open up our borders.
  The FDA has overstepped its actual authority. In fact, if Members 
would like a copy, this is the actual language, which basically says it 
is the FDA's responsibility to prove that the drugs that are being 
brought into the United States are not safe. Unfortunately, the way 
they have interpreted this law is they have said, no, it is the 
responsibility of the consumer. We want to put that responsibility back 
on the FDA, where it belongs.
  We should not allow our own FDA to stand between our consumers and 
lower drug prices.

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