WASHINGTON  -  U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (MO-08) today helped introduced legislation, officially offered by Rep. Gil Gutknecht (MN-01), in the House of Representatives which would enable licensed U.S. wholesalers and pharmacists to import prescription drugs from foreign countries at a fraction of their cost.  The plan represents an average 29 percent savings on the typical American prescription.

 

“Importation would accomplish what drug cards and confusing benefits cannot: It would force the drug industry to compete for American business.  We give them a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, we do billions of dollars of research for them, we let them buy out generic manufacturers’ products to keep low-cost alternatives out of the hands of American seniors, and let them name their price when we buy pills for 44 million Medicare beneficiaries,” Emerson said.

 

“How do they repay American seniors? Big drug companies outsource 40 percent of their pharmaceutical production to other countries, and import those medicines themselves.  All we are discussing here is letting your pharmacist do the same thing in a certified safe, cost effective manner.  Given the state of this industry, a little competition would be a very good thing.”

 

Market access has broad support in Congress, and a similar bill was approved by the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis in 2003.  Since the proposal was not taken up in the Senate in the 108th Congress, it begins the legislative process again this year.  This week, Majority Leader Bill Frist promised a debate on market access in the Senate will occur in the next six months.

 

“Momentum continues to grow for this idea,” Emerson said.  “Americans are desperate to apply some downward pressure on the costs of their prescription drugs, because this is a life-and-death situation for many of them.  We have desperate seniors going to Canada and Mexico to buy their medication every two months, desperate seniors cutting their pills in half, and desperate seniors turning to the Internet for their prescription drugs, only to fall into the clutches of counterfeiters.  At some point the American government has to stand up for our seniors and say we need a better solution.”