[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14318]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise again tonight to talk about the 
outrageously high prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs. But 
before I get started, I want to yield to the gentleman from Indiana 
(Mr. Burton) because the gentleman wants to correct something that he 
said earlier.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  I mentioned Glaxo that made the $9 billion, and I think they made 
money on other drugs that we will be discussing later, but the company 
in question was SmithKline Beecham that made $9 billion and returned 
only $35 million back in royalties to this government for the patents 
they had.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. And there are published reports that the president of 
SmithKline Beecham 2 years ago earned over $200 million.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me just comment on that. If he earned $200 
million, maybe he deserved it for ripping off the American people to 
the tune of $9 billion for their very small investment.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Indiana mentioned 
earlier, we had a Special Order the other night and we had Republicans 
and Democrats, and we hope to do it next week with Republicans and 
Democrats because this issue about what Americans pay for prescription 
drugs is not a matter of right versus left, it is right versus wrong.
  I think anybody who spends any time at all on this issue realizes it 
is wrong to force American consumers to pay the world's highest prices 
partly because we subsidize the research and development. There was a 
study done by the Boston Globe several years ago, and what they found 
was that of the 35 largest selling drugs in America, 32 of them were 
brought through the R&D channel by the Federal Government. The NIH paid 
for the basic research and development, got them to phase 3 trials. So 
we subsidize them in the research and development, we subsidize them in 
the Tax Code, and yet we are still required to pay the world's highest 
prices.
  Two years ago this Congress came together, the House and Senate, and 
we voted 304-101, I believe was the final vote, but it was over 300 
votes in the House, and we said Americans ought to have access to 
world-class drugs at world-market prices. That bill passed. It is on 
the books right now.

                              {time}  1945

  But unfortunately the FDA is not enforcing the law because in the 
conference committee they put a little safety language in there that 
says essentially if they cannot absolutely guarantee safety, the FDA 
does not have to enforce that.
  Ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk about safety. What I have in my 
hand tonight is a counterfeit-proof package of prescription drugs. It 
is called a blister pack, counterfeit-proof package of prescription 
drugs. This packaging is available today at a cost of about two cents 
per package. It is available today. Let me tell you what is available 
soon. They have been working on this at MIT. I do not expect anyone to 
see this because I cannot see it; but in this little vial, and if you 
would like to see this, I will share this with Members, in this little 
vial are 150 tiny computer chips, microchips. Ultimately, this is going 
to become the next UPC code. With this little chip, we can know where 
that product was manufactured, where it came from. It can help with 
inventory control, and ultimately it can guarantee that it is in fact 
Prilosec and not something else.
  Ladies and gentlemen, we can solve this problem. I have said before, 
it is not shame on the pharmaceutical industry; it is shame on us. The 
President of Glaxo or SmithKline does not work for us, but the head of 
FDA does. It is time for us as Members of Congress to do our 
responsibility, to make certain that Americans have access to world-
class drugs at world market prices. No, there is nothing wrong with the 
word profit. I believe in the word profit. But there is something very 
wrong with the word profiteer. It seems to me in the heritage of Teddy 
Roosevelt and so many other politicians who have been here in this city 
who stood up for the little guy, it is time for us to say, it is not a 
matter of right versus left; it is a matter of right versus wrong. We 
need to do the right thing. We need to open American access, we need to 
create competition here in the United States, and we need to make 
certain that Americans have access to world-class drugs at world market 
prices.

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