Political Quotes

“Madam President, tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee--which I chair--will hold a hearing on competition in the prescription drug market and its impact on the prices that Americans pay for medication. Patients in the United States pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Nearly three times what people in other developed countries pay for common medications and sometimes for exactly the same drug as prescribed in America. Take a well-known name, Jardiance, a diabetes treatment--you can almost hear the young lady singing the song, can't you? It retails for $700 a month in the United States. Do you know what the exact same drug made by the same company in the same place goes for in Canada? It is $150. Madam President, $700 for American citizens; $150 for Canadians for exactly the same drug. What is the difference? The difference is the Canadian Government cares, and the Canadian Government started acting years ago to protect the consumers in their country. The average new cancer drug entering the market last year had an annual list price of more than $200,000, and the prices keep going up. In 2022, drug manufacturers raised prices on more than 1,200 medications by an average--an average--of 32 percent, four times the rate of inflation. For patients already facing a gut-wrenching diagnosis, the last thing they should have to worry about is whether they can afford lifesaving treatment.…”