Byron Dorgan: “This is Zocor. A very famous football coach advertises this at halftime at football games. He says he takes Zocor. It is…”

“This is Zocor. A very famous football coach advertises this at halftime at football games. He says he takes Zocor. It is quite a good medicine, I am sure. These are two bottles for Zocor--one from the United States and one from Canada. The same pill is put in the same bottle, manufactured in the same place, by the same company. In both bottles is an FDA-approved drug. The only difference is, when that medicine is sold in the United States to U.S. consumers, it costs $3.03 per tablet. In Canada, the same pill, in the same bottle, made by the same company, cost $1.12 cents per tablet--$3 versus $1. The same pill, same company, different countries. That is Zocor. This is a drug called Lipitor. It has the same purpose as Zocor--to reduce cholesterol. You can see that it is sold in the United States and in Canada. These are bottles from each country. They are identical bottles, made by the same company, again only the cost is different--$1 per tablet for the Canadians, and $1.86 for the U.S. consumer. The same drug, same pill, manufactured in the same FDA-approved plant, put in the same bottle, but different prices. This is Vioxx used for arthritis. As you can see, same pill, made by the same company, put in identical bottles. The difference? It costs $2.20 if you buy it in the United States. If you are a Canadian customer, it costs 78 cents for the same tablet--$2.20 versus 78 cents for the same medicine.”