Steve Rothman: “I support the Kingston amendment which upholds existing law which allows for the importation of a personal-use quantity…”

“I support the Kingston amendment which upholds existing law which allows for the importation of a personal-use quantity, a 90-day supply of a prescription medicine from Canada. What the Kingston amendment will not allow, though, is the bulk importation of pharmaceuticals for the use of so-called Internet pharmacies. Internet pharmacies, you don't know where they're getting their drugs. They could come and have come from every single continent, from nearly every continent on the planet. If we want to reduce the price of drugs, we ought to encourage the drug companies to eliminate or minimize the price disparity between what our citizens pay in the United States and what people around the world pay for their prescription drugs. And, Mr. Chairman, we ought to reform Medicare part D. The Republican plan would subsidize the insurance industry and subsidize the drug companies instead of using that money for cheaper drugs for our own people in the United States. But the Kingston amendment will assure a personal supply that you can get from Canada, but will also assure a safe product comes to the people of the United States when they get their prescription drugs.”