Gilbert Gutknecht: “Apparently it is commonly prescribed; 850 milligram capsules, quantity of 50. The average price in the United States is…”

“Apparently it is commonly prescribed; 850 milligram capsules, quantity of 50. The average price in the United States is $54.49. The average price in Europe is $4.50. And this is a group in Minnesota that has done this study. Another commonly prescribed drug, Prilosec, the average price here in the United States is around $100 for a 30-day supply. That same 30-day supply, if a person happened to be vacationing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and they take their prescription into a drugstore there, they will pay $50.80 for the drug that sells in the United States for roughly a hundred dollars. But here is what is even more troubling. I will use that term. What is more troubling is that if we were to buy that same drug, same company, same FDA approval, but we purchase it in Guadalajara, Mexico, that same drug sells for $17.50. Now, I do not believe in price controls. I do not believe we should have a new agency to try to control drug prices. I believe that markets are more powerful than armies. But let me just say this. A few years ago this Congress passed the North American Free Trade Agreement; and we allow corn, we allow beans, we allow lumber, we allow cars, we allow steel, and we allow all kinds of goods to go back and forth across the border between the United States and Canada and between the United States and Mexico. That is what free trade is all about. But there is one exception. We do not allow prescription drugs to go across those borders.”