Arlen Specter: “Pennsylvania is proud to host some of the world's most innovative pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and…”

“Pennsylvania is proud to host some of the world's most innovative pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and health care product companies. The United States, of course, is the world's leader. These companies are developing the new medicines and new products that are extending and improving life for people around the world. Current law often unnecessarily slows the introduction of new technologies and new medicines and increases costs to producers, and therefore, ultimately, to consumers. I have consulted with consumer and other patient advocacy representatives, as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers and the biotechnology industry, in an effort to gather sufficiently diverse and constructive suggestions for meaningfully addressing this problem. While this is certainly an issue critical to Pennsylvania's economic future, it is most of all a critical issue for our citizens who suffer from costly and debilitating conditions for which no adequate drug therapies exist today, including Alzheimer's, AIDS, heart disease, cancer, et cetera. We cannot, and should not, keep these patients waiting any longer than absolutely necessary. We have a very basic problem in America about research expenditures for drugs that benefit sick people. These drugs benefit everybody, particularly the elderly and the young. We need medical research. We need these wonder drugs to be produced. It is a matter of fairness as to how we are going to compensate those who produce them.”