Pharmaceutical Market Access Act

PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET ACCESS ACT

Mr. JOHNSON. Madam President, while the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in the world, millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans continue to struggle to afford medicines they need when prices are out of reach.

The facts paint a disturbing picture. According to a 2002 Families USA report, the pharmaceutical industry has been the most profitable industry in the U.S. for the past 10 years, being five-and-one-half times more profitable than the average Fortune 500 companies. A Public Citizen June 2003 report found that in 2002, the top 10 drug companies netted profits of $36 billion, or more than one-half of all profits for Fortune 500 companies. While drug companies claim that their high prices support research and development one study found that eight major American pharmaceutical companies spent more than twice as much on marketing and administrative costs than on research and development.

And while powerful drug manufacturers continue to bring in high profits, American consumers continue to pay the highest
prices in the world-three to ten times more than other developed countries pay. South Dakotans cross the border every day to go to Canada in the hopes of purchasing lower-priced drugs that will prevent them from having to make the tough decision of choosing between buying groceries or life-saving medications.

And the recent actions of many of our State leaders indicate that Americans are fed up with paying by far the highest dollar prices in the world for prescription drugs that often times their tax dollars helped to develop. State governments have resorted to taking matters into their own hands: Maine now allows the State to negotiate fairer drug prices for all residents using the buying power of its Medicaid program, several States including Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are exploring the possibility of importing prescription drugs from Canada for State employees, and Minnesota's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline alleging that the pharmaceutical company is violating antitrust laws by "spearheading an industry-wide conspiracy" to prevent U.S. residents from reimporting U.S.-made prescription drugs at a lower cost from Canada.

The American people are fed up. They are demanding that Congress end the "sweetheart deal" that gives the powerful pharmaceutical industry a captive market. A recent poll taken by the Washington Post and ABC News found that two-thirds of Americans support the legal importation of FDA approved prescription drugs and I have joined several of my colleagues to introduce the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act which will do just that. I thank Senators DORGAN, STABENOW, DAYTON, PRYOR, LEVIN, FEINGOLD, SNOWE, JEFFORDS, and MCCAIN for staying committed and working with me on this very important issue.

This bill, which is the companion to House reimportation bill H.R. 2427 that passed with broad bipartisan support, will finally provide American consumers with immediate access to FDA-approved medicines in Canada, as well as other industrialized nations. It contains strong safety protections that will ensure that the U.S. drug supply remains safe. Innovative techniques such as counterfeit-resistant packaging and drug wholesaler pharmaceutical shipment testing will ensure this safety.

American consumers are already importing $500 million to $1 billion in prescription medicines from Canada and elsewhere. This is on top of the already $13 billion U.S. made prescription drugs already being reimported by pharmaceutical manufacturers under the authority found in the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1988. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the reimportation provisions found in this bill could provide approximately $40 billion over 10 years in savings to consumers. We need to bring these savings to the American people and finally eliminate the price disparity experienced in this country by passing a strong drug reimportation law and ensuring that it is actually implemented. Please support this important legislation.