Congress Deals with Drug Bill

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Congress Deals with Drug Bill

Recently, Representative Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) traveled to Germany and purchased a best-selling cancer drug, Tamoxifen. The drug costs $59.05 U.S. at the Munich airport pharmacy. In Washington D.C., however, Tamoxifen sells for $360. Worse than the price difference, Gutknecht says, “taxpayers paid for the research.”

“We subsidize the pharmaceutical industry three ways,” said Representative Gutknecht for the Congressional Record. “First, we pay for basic research. We will spend about $29 billion this year on research. Much of that goes to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

Secondly, we subsidize them through the Tax Code. They receive very generous tax benefits.

Finally, and what disturbs us the most, is we subsidize them in the prices we pay. Americans pay far more than the rest of the industrialized world for their prescription drugs.”

To gain a tie-breaking vote for the House Prescription Drug, leadership had to deal with legislation introduced by Congressman Gutknecht “The Pharmaceutical Marketing Access Act” that would open access to less-costly drugs from 25 industrialized nations. According to estimates, the legislation, which is supported by TSCL, could save American seniors $635 billion over the next 10 years even without a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Sources: “U.S. Government ‘Gave Away’ Cancer Drug,” Maggie Fox, Reuters, June 6, 2003. “Technology Transfer: NIH-Private Sector Partnership in the Development of Taxol,” General Accounting Office, June 2003, GAO-03-829. “Bringing American Pharmaceutical Prices Down to Competitive Levels,” statement of Representative Gil Gutknecht, The Congressional Record, June 9, 2003.

September 2003