Sanders Joins Pfizer VP in Calling for Passage of Reimportation Legislation

Statement of Congressman Sanders on 9/23/2004 regarding:
Sanders Joins Pfizer VP In Calling for Passage of Reimportation Legislation

Congressman Bernie Sanders delivered the following statement at a press conference in the United States Senate.

In 1999, I took a trip across the Canadian border with a group of senior citizens - a number of whom were women with breast cancer struggling for their lives - seeking the very same prescription drugs their doctors had prescribed in the United States, but at a fraction of the price. I will never forget the look on their faces when they found that they could buy Tamoxifen - a popular breast cancer drug developed by NIH-funded research - at one-tenth the price they were forced to pay in the United States. One tenth the price!

Since then, the momentum of this movement has proven that you really can't defend the indefensible. Since then, a steady tide of Americans has gone across the border in search of safe and affordable prescription drugs and now over 2 million Americans buy their medicines in Canada alone. Since then, at least 2 states have sponsored and many more are developing websites enabling their residents to buy prescription drugs from Canada, saving both the individuals and the states enormous sums of money. Since then, mayors from Mobile, Alabama to Springfield, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Vermont, have instituted similar programs. Now, just this week, the very county where the FDA's headquarters are located - Montgomery County, Maryland - came on board this national movement with a plan of its own. Even two of the largest pharmacies in the United States have come out in support of reimportation: CVS and Walgreens.

It seems that nearly everyone in America understands the common sense of reimportation except the gentleman in the White House and his administration. Today, I am happy to stand here with other leaders in Congress on this life-or-death issue to witness another milestone in this movement. An honest gentleman - Dr. Peter Rost - who just so happens to work as a Vice President for Pfizer, the largest drug company in the world, is going to tell us and the country that the scare campaign of the industry that reimportation cannot be done safely is completely bogus! He is going to tell us that reimportation - or parallel trade - of pharmaceuticals not only can be done safely, but has been done safely in Europe for decades.

I want to thank Dr. Rost for being the first major executive in the pharmaceutical industry to break ranks with the industry line and to stand here and tell us plainly what we've known for years to be true. It is refreshing and encouraging and I expect that Dr. Rost's courage will cause other honest members of the industry to follow suit. The momentum is with us. The truth is with us. And now a Vice President for the largest drug company in the world is with us.
I am pleased to introduce Dr. Peter Rost.