Political Quotes

“once again I rise tonight to talk about the high cost of prescription drugs here in the United States, and especially the high cost relative to what the rest of the industrialized world pays for the same drugs. I have told this story to many of my colleagues repeatedly about how about a month ago we went to Munich, Germany, and bought a list of 10 of the most commonly prescribed drugs in America. The total price tag for all 10 of those drugs compared to the average price here in the United States is about triple. It is more than double what we pay in the United States. I have used the example of this drug, and this is the actual drug, Tamoxifen, one of the most popular, most effective anti-breast cancer drugs ever developed. The interesting thing is that the National Institutes of Health, using taxpayers dollars, paid for most of the research. What makes us even more upset is not just that the American taxpayer paid to develop the drug, but the difference now between what American consumers have to pay for this drug compared to the rest of the world. This drug, for example, we bought at the Munich airport pharmacy for $59.05 American. To put that in context, this drug sells at pharmacies here in Washington, D.C., for $360. In other words, to round off the numbers, $60 in Germany, $360 in the United States. Worse than that, the American taxpayers paid for the research.…”