[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12156-12157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues may know, tragically 
millions of American citizens cannot afford the outrageously high costs 
of prescription drugs in this country. Some of these people die, others 
suffer, and still others take money from their food budgets or other 
basic necessities of life to buy the life-sustaining drugs that their 
doctors prescribe.
  Tragically, and I think many of us are fully aware of this now, 
citizens of the United States pay by far, not even close, the highest 
prices in the world for prescription drugs. Some of us have taken our 
constituents across the Canadian border, others have gone over the 
Mexican border and have found, for example, that tamoxifen, a widely-
prescribed breast cancer drug, sells in Canada for one-tenth of the 
price, one-tenth of the price that it sells in the United States. And 
this is for women who are struggling for their lives.
  But it is not only Canada that has lower prescription drug prices. 
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. 
Meanwhile, year after year the pharmaceutical industry appears at the 
top of the charts in terms of profits. Last year, for example, the ten 
major drug companies earned $26 billion in profits while millions of 
Americans are unable to afford the products that they produce.
  Now, why is it that prescription drugs in this country are so much 
more expensive than they are in any other industrialized country? I 
think the answer is obvious. The pharmaceutical industry is perhaps the 
most powerful political force in Washington and has spent, 
unbelievably, over $200 million in the last 3 years on campaign 
contributions, on lobbying, and on political advertising.

                              {time}  1900

  Amazingly, the drug companies have almost 300 paid lobbyists knocking 
on our doors in Washington, D.C. to make certain that Congress does not 
lower the cost of prescription drugs, and to make certain that their 
profits remain extraordinarily high.
  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 go unheeded as the pharmaceutical industry and 
their lobbyists defeat all efforts to lower prices.
  This year it is my hope and my expectation that it is going to be 
different and that we are finally going to succeed, not only in passing 
a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, but lowering prescription 
drug costs for all people.
  Last year this Congress in a bipartisan manner passed legislation 
that promised the American people that they would be able to buy 
prescription drugs at the same low prices as consumers in other 
countries through a drug reimportation program. In the House, the 
Crowley reimportation amendment won by the overwhelming vote of 363-12. 
Unfortunately, at the end of a long legislative process, loopholes were 
put into the amendment that made it ineffective. While the law remains 
on the books, it has not been implemented by either the Clinton 
administration or the Bush administration.
  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.
  Mr. Speaker, tomorrow as part of the agriculture appropriations bill, 
the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) and the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. Crowley) and I will introduce essentially what the 
Crowley bill was that passed overwhelmingly last year.
  Despite huge opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, I am 
confident that Congress will stand up and vote to begin the process to 
lower prescription drug costs in this country.
  As Dr. David A. Kessler, former FDA Commissioner under President Bush 
and President Clinton stated in support of reimportation last year, ``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

[[Page 12157]]

to safely import quality products rather than having American consumers 
do this on their own.'' That is Dr. David Kessler.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope tomorrow will win an overwhelming victory for 
prescription drug consumers in this country.

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