Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed--
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, it goes without saying, to pick up on Senator Isakson's point, that there is nobody in this body who does not want to see cures as quickly as possible for the terrible diseases that are taking the lives of children in this country. That is not the debate. Nor I think is it the debate that we need research and development to get us a cure of cancer, to get us a cure of Alzheimer's disease, to get us a cure of diabetes, and so many other diseases that are shortening the lives of people in our country and around the world. We must work together to make that happen.
In my view, if we understand that it is imperative that we try to come up with cures to these terrible diseases, there is no debate, I would hope, that the U.S. Government and institutions like the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration must play, as they have historically done, a major role in finding cures for these diseases, easing suffering and expanding life expectancy. I don't think there are too many people here who would disagree with that.
But in order to do that, it is clear that we are going to require a well funded National Institutes of Health and a well-funded Food and Drug Administration. I must say, it is beyond my comprehension that year after year, my Republican colleagues appear to work overtime to provide tax breaks to billionaires yet refuse to adequately fund the NIH or the Food and Drug Administration. What set of priorities can anyone have that makes sense to anybody in this country that says: Yes, we are going to give tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. But no, no, we are not going to adequately fund the major institutions in this country that are leading the effort to find cures of the terrible diseases that impact our children, our seniors, and everybody in this country.
I would hope that my Republican colleagues listen to the American people and get their priorities right. Poll after poll says no more tax breaks for the rich. Let's invest in health care. Let's invest in cures for the children's diseases that Senator Isakson talked about--cancer, Alzheimer's, and all the rest.
Second of all, just ironically and coincidentally, I just asked through my Web site for the American people to send me information on what is going on in their lives with regard to prescription drugs. Every so often, we do that. We sent out an email, and we do Facebook so they can tell me what is going on with regard to their life and prescription drugs. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the comments we received--and we received about 1,000 comments from people all over this country--are from people who are outraged by the high costs of prescription drugs in this country--a cost that is going up every single day.
People are walking into their pharmacies today and seeing the price of medicines that they have had for 20 years double, for no explanation other than the fact that the drug companies can do it and are doing it so they can make outrageous profits.
In this country, we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Senator Isakson talked about the terrible diseases facing our kids. He is right, but do you know that every year there are thousands of people in this country who are dying because they cannot afford to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, while last year the pharmaceutical industry made $50 billion in profit? The top five companies made $50 billion in profit.
One out of five people in this country, Senator Isakson, when they go to the doctor's office and they get a prescription, you know what, they can't afford to fill that prescription. Talk to the doctors in Georgia. Talk to the doctors in Tennessee. This is what they will tell you: We write the prescriptions, but working class people can't afford to fill them. We have received letters from oncologists all over this country who tell us their cancer patients cannot afford the outrageously high costs of the medicines people need to stay alive.
Maybe, just maybe, it might be time for the Senate to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and all of their lobbyists here and all of their campaign contributions and say: We are going to stand with the American people who are sick and tired of being ripped off by the drug companies.
Let me read just a few--I am not going to read 1,000 letters, just a few--to give an indication of what is going on in America.
Mark from Plainville, CT, wrote to us and said that his drug for Crohn's disease went up from $75 a month to $700 a month. Is anyone here concerned about that? He is worried that he may die. This is what he writes to me:
I am no longer treating my Crohn's disease. I am in a lot of pain and will eventually develop colorectal cancer and die. I am 39 with a wife and two daughters. We simply cannot afford this medication any longer. I have had to leave my job and I am now trying to freelance from home with no success for 4 months. Our home is about to be foreclosed. Is that of interest to my Republican friends or is that not important?
Amanda from Bartlesville, OK, shared this story of her husband's gout medication:
He pays more than $300 a month for a medicine that was $4 in 2010.
Maybe someone can explain to me how a medicine that was $4 in 2010 is $300 a month now.
He is now disabled because he cannot afford the medicine he needs.
Heather in Taos, NM, cannot afford her EpiPen. We have heard a whole lot about the high price of EpiPens. She said:
I basically haven't had one in years that is not expired. Just hope I don't get stung or I will die.
John in Anchor Point, AK, cannot afford his insulin, which jumped from $1,400 to $1,600. He said:
I skip buying groceries when picking up meds. Went home and scraped by. Sold possessions to make ends meet so we can buy food.
Jerry from Lincoln, NE, cannot afford Gabapentin for shingles. It was $35, and it is now $75.
Trish from New Jersey stopped taking her breast cancer medication because it went from $25 to $225 for a 3-month supply. Is anyone concerned about that?
Of course we want new drugs to cure diseases, but those new drugs won't do anybody any good if people can't afford them.
We have seen scandal after scandal in the last few months and years. Gilead sold Sovaldi, a drug for hepatitis C, for $1,000 a pill. Mylan raised EpiPen prices by 500 percent over the last several years, to more than $600. Martin Shkreli raised the price of Daraprim, a lifesaving AIDS medication, by 5,000 percent. Are we concerned about that? I hope some of us are.
Above and beyond the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is ripping off the American people, the FDA itself tells us that this voucher approach doesn't work. The Government Accountability Office released a report in March that found that there is no evidence this program works to incentivize drug development. Not only does the program not work, it actually slows down the review time of drugs that are clinically important. When one of these vouchers is used, that means FDA staff must take time away from reviewing priority medication in order to review drugs that have bought a pass to the front of the line. By moving one drug faster, more important drugs may move slower.
What we do know is that these vouchers sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. One recent example from last year is that a drug company, United Therapeutic, sold a priority review voucher to another major drug company, AbbVie, for $350 million.
While nearly one in five Americans cannot afford to fill their prescriptions, the top five drug companies made a combined $50 billion in profits last year.
There are many reasons why we pay such outrageous prices, but one reason is we continue passing laws written by the pharmaceutical industry and their lobbyists year after year after year. I believe the American people should know that the pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $3 billion on lobbying since 1998. How is that? Democracy at work. Drug companies charge us the highest prices in the world, and the pharmaceutical industry spent $3 billion on lobbying. They are all over this place, high-priced lobbyists trying to get us to pass pharma legislation. Just last year the pharmaceutical industry spent $250 million on lobbying and campaign contributions and employed some 1,400 lobbyists. Maybe the working families of this country need some protection against these lobbyists.
I certainly want to do everything I can to see that this country comes forward with cures for children's diseases and diseases that impact so many Americans of all ages, but we are going to have to have the courage to start taking on the pharmaceutical industry and representing the American people. So I am offering an amendment, along with Senator Warren, which I hope will pass, which will extend this program, which is going to expire at the end of September, to the end of the year. That will give us an additional 3 months to work together to come up with some serious legislation that addresses not only children's issues but the health care and needs of millions of Americans in general.
I look forward to working with my friends on the other side to come up with a good solution to protect the American people from the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs in this country.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me say to Chairman Alexander, I certainly look forward to working with him over the next several months to come up with a package that makes certain we do everything we can to cure childhood illnesses, which otherwise would be fatal, but that we also understand it is not just 7,800 beautiful kids in that hospital, but there are millions of people in this country who are suffering today because they cannot even afford the medicine that is on the market at the same time as five drug companies--it is not a question of disliking drug companies. It is a question of fact. Five drug companies made $50 billion in profits last year, charging our people, by far, the highest prices in the world for medicine. One out of five Americans who are sick cannot afford the medicine they need.
An example, one small example, this is the chart of drug prices in the United States versus Canada, with EpiPen, which is on the front pages today. In the United States, it is $620; in Canada, it is $290.
Why are we paying twice as much for the same product as a country 50 miles away from where I live?
Crestor, for high cholesterol, is $730 in the United States, $160 in Canada. Premarin, for estrogen therapy, is $421 in the United States, $84 in Canada.
Look, I have been around the country in the last year, and there are few Americans--very few--who do not understand that the greed of the pharmaceutical industry is causing terrible health problems for millions of people. I read some examples. There are people who are dying because they can't afford the medicine they need. People are cutting their pills in half, which should not be done.
So I do look forward to working with Senator Alexander in the next couple of months to see how we can, in fact, come up with legislation that begins to address one of the great health care crises facing this country, and that is the high cost of prescription drugs and the need to make medicine available to all of our people at an affordable price.
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