Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I, too, come to speak today regarding pharmaceutical costs and what we can do to make lifesaving medications--and sometimes these medications make our lives a little bit better--more affordable to the average American. I happen to be a doctor, and I will approach these remarks as a fellow who has seen medicine evolve, who has seen the incredible, positive benefits of pharmaceutical innovation, but also as a doctor who sometimes saw that patients were unable to afford innovation. The question in my mind is, How do we give the patient the power to afford these innovative medicines, because if she cannot afford them, it is as if the innovation never occurred, and for her, it never did occur. So give the patient power. Let me make some remarks about pharmaceutical companies. There are some incredible examples. When I was in medical school, cutting away a part of one's stomach-- not the belly but part of the stomach; as I would tell patients, where the food goes after you swallow it--cutting away a part of the stomach because of ulcerative disease was one of the most common procedures done in surgery. Then histamine blockers came along, H2 blockers. Cimetidine was the first. All of a sudden, a surgery that was done multiple times a week was scarcely ever done. Those medicines are now sold over the counter.…”