Byron Dorgan: “5 miles north of that North Dakota one- room drugstore, in Emerson, Canada, you will find, if you have breast cancer and…”

“5 miles north of that North Dakota one- room drugstore, in Emerson, Canada, you will find, if you have breast cancer and have to buy Tamoxifen, that the drug that you pay $10 for in the U.S. can be purchased for $1 5 miles north. The question is, why should that happen? It should not happen. Let the market system deal with this. These are FDA-approved drugs. It is the same pill put in the same bottle by the same company. We ought to have fair pricing for Americans, and if not fair pricing here, then allow them to access those prescription drugs from a chain of custody in Canada that is safe. We are only talking about licensed pharmacists and distributors being able to access that FDA-approved drug from a licensed pharmacist or distributor in Canada. We have accepted the Cochran language. We don't think that injures this because, in the circumstance, we have changed the reimportation amendment to deal only with Canada, which has nearly an identical chain of supply and would therefore represent a safe drug supply for our pharmacists and distributors to access and to be able to pass the savings along to the American consumer. That is the purpose of this amendment. I reserve the remainder of my time.”