Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2007

Floor Speech

PRESCRIPTION DRUG USER FEE AMENDMENTS OF 2007 -- (Senate - May 03, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I have not had an opportunity to speak with the Senator from North Dakota. I hope I am not abusing my privilege of working with him and having some time this morning. I yield myself 7 minutes.

The Dorgan amendment is the moment American consumers have been waiting for. I am here to urge my colleagues to vote for cloture so we can finally legalize drug importation.

As I said yesterday, the Dorgan amendment is the result of a collaborative effort by myself, with Senators Dorgan, Snowe, and Kennedy, to finally make drug importation legal. This is a golden opportunity that we have been waiting for years to accomplish. The bill before us is the vehicle this year to get it done.

The bill we are debating is a must-pass Food and Drug Administration bill. The Senate should send a strong message that we are committed to finally getting it done this year. This is what we have been working to accomplish today.

Making it legal for Americans to import their prescription drugs is a top priority at the grassroots of America. It needs to be a top priority here in Washington.

It is something that shows up in almost every one of my town meetings throughout Iowa. I have long advocated allowing American consumers access to safe drugs from other countries. I have always considered this more a free trade issue than I have a health or prescription drug issue.

Imports create competition and keep domestic industry more responsive to consumers. In the United States--so that I explain why I consider this a free trade issue more than a health issue--we import everything. We allow everything that consumers might want to buy; based upon the quality they choose and the price they choose, we have allowed it to come into the country if Americans want to buy from overseas. Hopefully, they want to buy American-made products. But we have considered free trade something that has given consumers the best deal they can get. So why not do it for pharmaceuticals as well as any other product people want to buy?

Consumers in the United States now pay far more for prescription drugs than consumers in other countries. If Americans could legally and safely access prescription drugs from outside the United States under a regulation that we established to guarantee safety, drug companies will be forced to reevaluate the price strategies that they have for American consumers. They would no longer be able to gouge American consumers by making them pay more than their fair share for the high cost of research and development. I sort out research and development because I think Canadians are getting a better deal from American pharmaceuticals. Germans are getting a better deal from American pharmaceuticals. They get such a low price. They don't pay the fair share. The American consumer of pharmaceutical products pays for most of the research and development that benefits the entire world. It is not fair to the American consumer.

It is true that pharmaceutical companies do not like the idea of opening American consumption of drugs to the global marketplace. They want to keep the United States closed to other markets in order to charge higher prices here. They would argue: We have to charge higher prices here. The Government directs what we pay the consumers or charge the consumers of Germany. Well, that is not fair to the American to pay for that sort of research.

However, with the Dorgan amendment--and this is what we are talking about on this important vote coming up--prescription drug companies will be forced to compete, forced to establish a fair price here in America.

Some don't want this to happen. I want to reiterate that there is an attempt to kill drug importation, as has been done many times before in this Chamber. I am referring to an amendment to make sure there is certification of health and safety. That amendment is designed to kill drug importation once again. It is a clever amendment, but it is a poison pill. Our effort develops an effective and safe system. This amendment requires all imported drugs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That is the right thing to do. The amendment sets a stringent set of safety requirements that must be met before Americans can import drugs into this country, and there are stiff penalties for violation. Don't be fooled by this poison pill amendment. Voting for that amendment is a vote to kill drug importation. That amendment surely will be up if we get beyond the cloture vote, the next vote. It is important that people vote for cloture.

With the Dorgan amendment, we are getting the job of safety done. We need to make sure Americans have even greater, more affordable access to wonder drugs by further opening the doors to competition in the global pharmaceutical industry. We must make sure they have access to affordable prescription drugs.

I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture.

One additional editorial comment that is legitimate to maybe criticize GRASSLEY for voting for this amendment but a criticism that I think I would now explain; that is, that comes from a very good fellow Member and friend of mine in the Senate who came up to me yesterday and said: Then wouldn't I be for having all restrictions against ethanol coming into this country done away with because I represent a State that is very high in ethanol.

I said the answer to that is twofold: No. 1, all restrictions ought to go off when ethanol is no longer an infant industry, and it is still an infant industry. Secondly, and more importantly, there is already a free importation of ethanol in this country of up to 7 percent of our production, and we have not even reached that 7 percent importation of ethanol. I will debate that issue when the leeway within present law allows.

So I do not think there is an inconsistency on my part in what I said about the free entry from the mature industry of pharmaceuticals--maybe not mature in biotechnology but surely mature in pharmaceuticals.

I yield the floor.

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