[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11966-11968]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kerns). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is 
recognized for 20 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) for making some of his time available to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to tell a story tonight about what happens when 
an industry with unparalleled greed operates and spends huge sums of 
money, with the result that they are destroying the health and well-
being of millions of Americans. And the industry that I am talking 
about, sadly enough, is the pharmaceutical industry.
  Mr. Speaker, I think, as my colleagues know, millions of Americans 
today cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs in 
this country. Some of these people will die because they are unable to 
purchase the prescription drugs that their physicians prescribe to 
them. Many of them will just continue to suffer, not being able to get 
the alleviation for their pain because they cannot afford those 
prescription drugs. Others will buy the prescription drugs by taking 
money out of their food budget or their heat budget and will do without 
other basic necessities of life in order to purchase prescription 
drugs.
  Disgracefully, Mr. Speaker, tragically, the American people pay by 
far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. It is not 
even close. Several years ago, I took a number of Vermonters over the 
Canadian border into Montreal because they could not afford the very, 
very high prescription drug prices in our own country. And what we 
found when we went over the

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border to Montreal is that the same exact drugs, manufactured and sold 
in the United States, were sold for a fraction of the cost an hour away 
from where my constituents were living in northern Vermont.
  Some of the women who went with me over the border were fighting for 
their lives against breast cancer, an affliction that affects large 
numbers of women in this country. And what they found when they went 
across the border with me is that tamoxifen, a widely prescribed breast 
cancer drug, was selling in Canada for one-tenth the price, 10 percent 
of the price, that it is sold in the United States. Imagine that, women 
who are struggling for their lives are forced to pay ten times more in 
the United States than our neighbors are paying in Canada for the same 
exact drug manufactured by the same exact company.
  It is not just Canada and it is not just Mexico. In the southern part 
of our country, California, Texas, and Arizona, Americans are going 
across our southern borders into Mexico for the same exact reason that 
Americans in the northern part of this country are going into Canada. 
But it is not just Mexico and Canada that have substantially lower 
prices for prescription drugs. It is every other major country on 
Earth.
  Mr. Speaker, for every $1 spent in the United States for a 
prescription drug, those same drugs are purchased in Switzerland for 65 
cents, the United Kingdom for 64 cents, France for 51 cents, and Italy 
for 49 cents. The same exact drugs. Meanwhile, while the pharmaceutical 
industry rips off the American people, causes death, causes suffering, 
that same industry year after year is at the top of the charts in terms 
of profits.
  Last year, for example, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies earned 
$26 billion in profit. Twenty-six billion dollars. Why is it that 
prescription drug prices are higher in the United States than in any 
other industrialized country? Well, the answer is pretty obvious. The 
pharmaceutical industry is perhaps the most powerful political force in 
Washington and has spent over $200 million in the last 3 years on 
campaign contributions, lobbying, and political advertising. Twenty 
million dollars in the last 3 years in order to make sure that Congress 
does not lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs and 
affect their profits. Two hundred million dollars.
  We see that money spent. We see it in the TV ads in our homes, on our 
home television stations. We see it in the full page ads in the 
Washington papers and in papers all over this country. Amazingly, not 
only are they spending money on advertising, not only do they spend 
money on campaign contributions, but the vast majority of Members of 
Congress receive money from the pharmaceutical industry. The political 
parties receive money from the pharmaceutical industry in soft money. 
But even more amazing, the pharmaceutical industry has on their payroll 
almost 300 paid lobbyists right here on Capitol Hill. Imagine that. 
There are 535 Members of Congress, 100 in the Senate, 435 in the House, 
and they have 300 paid lobbyists, including former Senators, former 
Members of the House, knocking on our doors every day, saying, hey, do 
not do anything to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Keep our 
profits high, and we will make sure you get your campaign 
contributions.
  This is an absolute disgrace to democracy and it is an outrage being 
perpetrated against millions of Americans who want nothing more than to 
be able to purchase reasonably priced prescription drugs. Mr. Speaker, 
year after year senior citizens throughout this country and those with 
chronic illnesses cry out for prescription drug reform and lower 
prices, but their cries and their tears go unheeded as the 
pharmaceutical industry and their lobbyists defeat all efforts to lower 
prices. Year after year those poor people come up here, bla, bla, bla, 
bla, bla, and year after year every effort is defeated because the 
pharmaceutical industry and their money machine prevents any real 
reform.
  Well, this year it is my hope that it will be different because 
Congress is going to build on our successes from the last session of 
Congress. Last year this Congress, in a bipartisan measure, 
overwhelmingly passed legislation which promised the American people 
that they would be able to buy prescription drugs at the same low 
prices as do consumers in other countries through a reimportation 
program. And that means that the United States, in the midst of a 
global economy, that our prescription drug distributors, our 
pharmacists, should be able to purchase FDA safety-inspected drugs from 
any country where they can get a better price. If drugs are sold in 
Canada for one-tenth the price, pharmacists in the United States should 
be able to reimport those drugs under strict FDA safety regulations.
  In the House last year, the Crowley reimportation amendment, 
introduced by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), won by a 363 
to 12 vote. Unfortunately, at the end of a long legislative process, 
loopholes were put into the overall bill last year that made it 
ineffective. While the law remains on the books, it has not been 
implemented by either the Clinton or the Bush administrations. In an 
increasingly globalized economy, where we import food and other 
products from all over the world, it is incomprehensible that 
pharmacists and prescription drug distributors are unable to import or 
reimport FDA safety-approved drugs that were manufactured in FDA 
approved facilities.
  The pharmaceutical industry and their supporters in Congress are 
sending out letters right now saying, oh, this is a dangerous idea, we 
are going to be poisoning the American people. This is absolute 
nonsense. Let me briefly read from a letter that was sent to Senator 
Byron Dorgan on September 13, 2000 last year. And as many people know, 
Dr. Kessler is the former FDA commissioner, I believe under both former 
Presidents Bush and Clinton, and this is what he stated in his support 
of reimportation last year, and I quote.
  ``I believe U.S. licensed pharmacists and wholesalers, who know how 
drugs need to be stored and handled, and who would be importing them 
under the strict oversight of the FDA, are well-positioned to safely 
import quality products rather than having American consumers do this 
on their own. Second, if the FDA is given the resources necessary to 
ensure that imported FDA approved prescription drugs are the authentic 
product, made in an FDA-approved manufacturing facility, I believe the 
importation of these products can be done without causing a greater 
health risk to American consumers than currently exists. Finally, as a 
Nation, we have the best medical armamentarium in the world. Over the 
years, FDA and the Congress have worked hard to assure the American 
public has access to important medicine as soon as possible. But 
developing lifesaving medications does not do any good unless Americans 
can afford to buy the drugs their doctors prescribe. The price of 
prescription drugs poses a major public health challenge. While we 
should do nothing that compromises the safety and quality of our 
medicine, it is important to take steps to make prescription drugs more 
affordable.''
  That is Dr. David Kessler, in a letter to Senator Byron Dorgan of 
September 13, 2000.
  Mr. Speaker, when the agricultural appropriations bill comes up, 
perhaps on Thursday, perhaps next week, the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Crowley), the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), and 
others and I intend to introduce an amendment, the reimportation 
amendment, which is the same amendment as the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Crowley) introduced last year that received, as I mentioned 
before, 363 votes.
  We know right now that the pharmaceutical industry's cash register is 
clicking overtime. Their lobbyists are all over Washington trying to 
scare Members of Congress so that they will not pass this legislation. 
But I believe that when Members of Congress go into their hearts and 
when they listen to the seniors and the other people back home who are 
sick and tired of paying

[[Page 11968]]

outrageously high prices for prescription drugs, who are sick and tired 
of having to go to Canada and Mexico to buy the drugs that they need, I 
believe that despite all of the scare tactics of the pharmaceutical 
industry and their representatives in the United States Congress, that 
Congress will have the guts to stand up to them and vote for the 
American people and pass the Sanders-Crowley-DeLauro reimportation 
amendment.
  Mr. Speaker, when that amendment comes before the floor, it may be 
the only opportunity this year or next year that Members of Congress 
will have to vote to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription 
drugs. I hope and am confident that Members of Congress will ignore the 
scare tactics of the pharmaceutical industry and their representatives 
and join the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. Crowley), and myself, and many others from both 
parties, in demanding that finally, after years and years of talk, we 
lower the cost of prescription drugs in this country and we create a 
situation in which American consumers do not have to continue paying 
far more than people throughout the rest of the world for the same 
exact prescription drugs.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Pallone), for having yielded me his time, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.

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