Maurice Hinchey: “I urge the defeat of this rule, not because the underlying bill is poor. It is not. But because this rule does not give…”

“I urge the defeat of this rule, not because the underlying bill is poor. It is not. But because this rule does not give us an opportunity to insert within the bill language which would allow for a meaningful reduction in the price of pharmaceuticals for American citizens. The bill pretends to allow the reimportation of pharmaceuticals from Canada, where they are available at one-half the price or less than that which they are available for here in the United States. It pretends to do that, but it does not really carry out that objective. It makes an omission, knowingly and wittingly, in that it does not provide for the means by which that importation will take place. For example, the language in the bill leaves open the ability of the pharmaceutical companies in their contracts with the Canadian Government and Canadian distributors to insert contract provisions which will require that the drugs from Canada can only be reimported back into the United States at the highly inflated American price. For example, there is a very popular cholesterol inhibitor which is manufactured by Merck. It is available in Canada for $39. The same amount of exactly the same formulary, from the same company, costs $117 here in the United States. If we are going to do anything to prevent the continued exploitation of American consumers in the price of pharmaceuticals, we have to defeat this rule.”