Mike Enzi: “all here today have the same goal in mind, and that same goal is to be sure we have the lowest priced, best, and most…”

“all here today have the same goal in mind, and that same goal is to be sure we have the lowest priced, best, and most available prescription drugs in the world. We do want to make sure the cost is as low as possible. How we get there we have some disagreement over, and I would like to take a moment to address the first-degree amendment that is before us right now, which I hope will be corrected with the second-degree amendment. The first-degree amendment would allow for pharmacies and pharmaceutical distributors to reimport drugs from Canada. I continue to have two major concerns about the amendment. First, as my colleague from Mississippi has articulated, there is no way to assure the safety of drugs reimported from Canada. Experts, including two Secretaries of Health and Human Services, said it cannot be safely implemented for consumers. That is probably even more true since September 11 and the anthrax attack. Safety is the reason we do not have it right now. I believe we are presently operating under the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987, which expressly bans the reimportation of drugs to protect the public health and the integrity of the distribution market in the United States. It passed the Senate unanimously. That means everybody who was here on March 31, 1988, agreed for it to go through.”