Charles Norwood: “Mr. Chairman, we all want to do whatever we can do to lower the prescription drug costs for patients, and the sponsors…”

“Mr. Chairman, we all want to do whatever we can do to lower the prescription drug costs for patients, and the sponsors of this amendment obviously intend to do just that. But there is more to this than just lowering the cost. The corresponding cost to public safety under this amendment is simply unacceptable. Under this amendment, overseas scam artists can counterfeit a label, claiming their product is a brand name, and we ban the FDA from even investigating? Would you vote to ban the FDA from investigating medications prescribed in this country? Even when they suspect exactly what is happening, the FDA is banned from investigating. Mr. Chairman, I, too, wrote a lot of prescriptions as a practicing dentist for 25 years before I came here. I can tell you, America's health providers must know beyond any doubt that the medicines that they give their patients are what they say on the label. Now, I know that some medications can come in, and it does save some people some money. But I do not want it imported through the port of Savannah to be spread out through my State, not knowing what is in that medicine.”