[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12090]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          PRESCRIPTION DRUG INDUSTRY'S NEW LOBBYING TECHNIQUE

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the prescription drug industry has 
come up with a new lobbying technique. Three weeks ago, the drug 
industry dumped almost $3 million into a Republican fundraising event. 
Two weeks ago, in a party-line vote, the drug industry and Republicans 
pushed through a prescription drug Medicare privatization bill.
  Now the drug industry is pressuring medical schools and teaching 
hospitals and doctors to write Congress urging us to continue 
permitting drug companies to engage in anticompetitive behavior. They 
have convinced a few of these health care providers that unless the 
U.S. lets the drug industry keep competition out of the market, my 
colleagues guessed it, research and development will dry up. Fourteen 
years of patent-protection monopoly prices apparently is not enough.
  The same industry that consistently earns profits five points higher 
than other profitable industries argues that if they do not exploit 
America's seniors they cannot and will not do research and development. 
That excuse, Mr. Speaker, is wearing thin.
  Private and public resources for health care are not infinite. Drug 
companies continue to cheat American consumers, employer-sponsored 
health care plans and State governments and every other health care 
purchaser out of billions of dollars each year. Enough is enough.

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