Robin Carnahan: “Mr. President, over the next 2 weeks, the Senate will address an issue that Americans have come to understand far too…”

“Mr. President, over the next 2 weeks, the Senate will address an issue that Americans have come to understand far too well--the high price of prescription drugs. We need to do all we can to lower the price of prescription drugs for consumers. Senator Stabenow's amendment is one example of a concrete action the Senate can take. Her amendment would give the State the flexibility to negotiate Medicaid drug discounts for non-Medicaid-eligible individuals. This amendment would help lower prices for all consumers. I am a cosponsor of the amendment and encourage my colleagues to support it. We need to do much more. We need to pass the underlying Schumer-McCain legislation. Today, pharmaceutical companies are making historic profits while average Americans are paying historic prices. Let's look at those profits. Earlier this year, Fortune magazine did a comparison of U.S. industries to see how profitable they were in the past year. The pharmaceutical industry ranked No. 1 in all three of Fortune's profitability measures. Almost 20 percent of its revenues were profits. But now let's look at the prices. In 2001, the prices of the 50 prescription drugs used most often by seniors increased on the average by nearly three times the rate of inflation. For example, Lipitor, which is used to treat high cholesterol, rose 13.5 percent, more than five times the rate of inflation. Paxil, which is used to treat depression, rose 11.6 percent.”