Political Quotes

“As my colleagues may know, tragically millions of American citizens cannot afford the outrageously high costs of prescription drugs in this country. Some of these people die, others suffer, and still others take money from their food budgets or other basic necessities of life to buy the life-sustaining drugs that their doctors prescribe. Tragically, and I think many of us are fully aware of this now, citizens of the United States pay by far, not even close, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Some of us have taken our constituents across the Canadian border, others have gone over the Mexican border and have found, for example, that tamoxifen, a widely-prescribed breast cancer drug, sells in Canada for one-tenth of the price, one-tenth of the price that it sells in the United States. And this is for women who are struggling for their lives. But it is not only Canada that has lower prescription drug prices. For every $1 spent in the United States for a prescription drug, those same drugs are purchased in Switzerland for 65 cents, the United Kingdom for 64 cents, France for 51 cents, and Italy for 49 cents. Meanwhile, year after year the pharmaceutical industry appears at the top of the charts in terms of profits. Last year, for example, the ten major drug companies earned $26 billion in profits while millions of Americans are unable to afford the products that they produce.”