[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12006]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   SHELF LIFE FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  (Mr. MURPHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, so often people come to this Chamber and say 
the way we deal with health care costs is to change who pays. What we 
need to talk about is what we are paying for.
  The Department of Defense Extended Shelf Life Program evaluated over 
312 drug products and found that even though they were given a date of 
shelf life, many of them maintain their stability, safety and potency 
up to as much as an additional 107 months past their expiration dates.
  For the $3.9 million the military spent on stability testing on 
expired drugs, it saved $263 million. These are savings worth 
exploring, and I would urge my colleagues to support careful scientific 
review of expiration dates for prescription drugs and ask if the 
savings gained by the military can be applied to general health care 
spending.
  My colleagues can learn more about these ideas for savings and health 
care by visiting my Web site at Murphy.house.gov and continue to change 
the way we look at health care to what we are paying for.

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