Jack Kingston: “I think we need to say a word of thanks to the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the gentleman from…”

“I think we need to say a word of thanks to the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), and also to the House Republican leadership for scheduling some hearings on the drug reimportation issue. I am very excited about the hearings. Because when people around America see some of the differences in the costs, and I see the gentleman has his latest chart up there, for instance with Premarin, and if I am reading it correctly, it is $55.42 in America compared to $8.95 in Europe. A statistic that our friend and colleague, the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) has brought up is that the Boston University School of Public Health, a particular professor there, says that America could save $38 billion a year if American consumers could buy medications at Canadian prices. Of course, the gentleman has European prices on there, but we have also other charts with Canadian prices, and they are just as attractive as the European prices. What is odd, and I just want to enter into a dialogue with the gentleman, does the gentleman know how many people it is that have died because of drug reimportation?”