Dick Durbin: “This bill gives the last word to the Bush administration and the head of the FDA who have said categorically they are…”

“This bill gives the last word to the Bush administration and the head of the FDA who have said categorically they are opposed to reimportation. The reason they are opposed is that it would be more competition for pharmaceutical companies that want to charge higher prices in the United States. I have believed all along that we are not importing drugs from Canada, we are importing leadership from Canada. The Canadian Government has stood up for its citizens and said: We are not going to allow the drug companies to raise their prices every single year. This Government, this Congress, refuses to show the same leadership, and now is effectively blocking the reimportation of drugs that seniors need to survive.”