[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24253]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                LOWERING THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, the big issue that is being 
raised on the front page of USA Today, which I hope all of my 
colleagues will have a chance to read, is the very large price 
disparities between prescription drug costs here in the United States 
and what they cost elsewhere in the world. I was amazed that the media 
is really finally jumping on this issue, because the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), who has been leading the fight on this 
issue, has been working on it a long time.
  It shows very clearly that the people in the USA pay 58 percent more 
for prescription drugs than people in Switzerland do, 60 percent more 
than they spend in Great Britain, 67 percent more than Canada, 74 
percent more than Germany, 78 percent more than Sweden, 102 percent 
more than France and 112 percent more than Italy.
  This is a fact. The American people are paying so much more for 
pharmaceutical products than other countries and people who are buying 
prescription drugs in other parts of the world that Americans are going 
across the border into Canada in droves to buy their pharmaceutical 
products because it saves them so much money. When you have a little 
old lady who cannot afford her pharmaceutical products and her health 
is at risk, you cannot blame her for going across the Canadian border 
to buy the very same prescription drug for one-fourth or one-fifth or 
one-sixth of what it costs here in the United States.
  It is very important that this message be gotten out to all of our 
constituents around this country, so that we can bring about some 
positive change that will make sure that Americans pay a fair price for 
world class drugs.
  I just would like to say to my colleague who has been leading the 
fight on this issue, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), what 
do you think about this?
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Well, if the gentleman would yield, I think President 
Reagan had it best, quoting John Adams, when he said, ``Facts are 
stubborn things.''
  I want to congratulate the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton), the 
gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Emanuel), the gentlewoman from (Mrs. Emerson) and so many other people 
in the House.
  This is not a single-person issue. We have been involved in this for 
many years. The gentleman from Indiana (Chairman Burton) has been among 
the only chairmen here in this Congress who have been willing to have 
real hearings and bring in both sides and let both sides present their 
case and let the facts come out.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mrs. Speaker, reclaiming my time, one of the 
things that bothers me is the gentleman has been talking about how safe 
it is to buy pharmaceutical products from other industrialized nations.
  There are some 940 FDA approved facilities around the world that 
produce these products. They are sent around the world in bulk, so the 
safety issue appears to be a bogus issue. But today, in USA Today, the 
head of the Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Mark McClellan, said that 
the seniors and others who are buying their pharmaceuticals from Canada 
are buying under ``buyer-beware'' conditions, which indicates he thinks 
they are at great risk.
  Would the gentleman explain to us why that is not accurate?
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Once again, the facts do not support that. We know, 
for example, how many people have died from taking legal FDA approved 
drugs from other countries. It is a nice, round number, easy to 
remember: It is zero. We know that more people become ill and die from 
eating foods, fruits and vegetables, which the FDA is also responsible 
for, than they ever will with the drugs we are talking about.
  More importantly, this is happening now. Americans are doing this 
right now, many of them knowing that, technically, the FDA says this is 
illegal. I do not necessarily agree that this is illegal.
  Congressional intent is very clear: We intend to make this legal, and 
we intend to make it safer, using tamper-proof, counterfeit-proof 
packaging, which is not required today, actually making this business 
even safer.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. The thing that is interesting is there are 
containers that are tamper-proof, and you just showed one of them 
there. But these 940-some production sites around the world that are 
FDA approved, they send these pills around the world in bulk, in huge 
containers, and it seems to me if there was any threat of sabotage or 
messing around with those, it would be in those bigger containers, not 
in a tamper-proof vial like that.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. The gentleman is absolutely right. The drug Lipitor, 
for example, every single tablet is imported into the United States, 
because it is only made in Ireland in an FDA-approved facility. When 
they ship into the United States, they do not bring it in in armored 
cars, they bring it in in big bulk containers that sit on a loading 
dock in New Jersey for a week or so. If there is any chance to get in 
there and tamper with those drugs, there is a much better chance at 
that time than in an individual package.
  So, ultimately the safety argument, and I think most Members and 
Americans, voting with their feet, have come to the same conclusion, 
the safety argument is just pure bogus.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. So it boils down to why is the Food and Drug 
Administration trying to protect the huge profits that are being made 
here in the United States by the pharmaceutical companies, when at the 
same time in other parts of the world it is not that great.

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