I support Senator McCain’s amendment that would allow drug importation from approved pharmacies in Canada.
I have been a long-time proponent of drug importation. I am currently a co-sponsor of the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, a bill I have worked on for many years with Senator Snowe and Senator McCain.
In 2000, 2002 and 2003, I supported amendments similar to the one before us today that would permit importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
In 2004, the late Senator Kennedy and I worked together on a bill that would authorize drug importation, but it did not survive. I then introduced my own comprehensive drug importation bill in 2004, S. 2307, the Reliable Entry for Medicines at Everyday Discounts through Importation with Effective Safeguards Act or Remedies Act. In 2005, I combined my bill with a proposal sponsored by Senator Dorgan and Senator Snowe.
In 2007 and 2009, we reintroduced a version of that legislation with hope that our combined efforts would finally lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans. During the health care reform debate in 2009, drug importation had a better chance to pass than ever before. We had a Democratic super-majority in Congress, and a Democratic President who supported drug importation in the past.
But a backroom deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry prevented us from finally lowering the drug costs for all Americans. So here we are today, trying to accomplish that same goal with the McCain amendment.
I have always considered drug importation a free-trade issue. Imports create competition and keep domestic industry more responsive to consumers. Consumers in the United States pay far more for prescription drugs than those in other countries. For instance, U.S. prices are an average 52.5 percentage higher than Canadian pharmacy prices.
If Americans could legally and safely access prescription drugs outside the United States, then drug companies will be forced to re-evaluate their pricing strategies. They’d no longer be able to gouge American consumers by making them pay more than their fair share of the high cost of research and development. In the United States, we import everything consumers want. So why not pharmaceuticals?
Some opponents of this amendment have concerns about what drug importation would mean for drug safety. Everyone who knows me knows that I care deeply about the safety of drugs. And I would not be standing here today urging support for the McCain amendment if I didn’t think it had properly protected the safety of the nation’s prescription drug supply chain. The fact of the matter is that the unsafe situation is what we have today.
Today, patients who need a cheaper alternative are ordering drugs over the internet from who knows where and the FDA does not have the resources to do much of anything about it.
The fact is that the McCain amendment would not only help to lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans, but will also establish a system where American patients can be certain that the drugs they are importing are safe.
The amendment has requirements that a pharmacy must meet before the Secretary may approve them for participation.
This includes product testing in labs designated by the Secretary.
A list of approved pharmacies will be published on the FDA website.
Patients who are already forced to purchase their medication outside the United States would be able to access the list to choose a safe option.
Additionally, the amendment lays out criteria that must be met before a patient may import drugs from an FDA-approved pharmacy.
Patients must have a valid prescription from a physician licensed to practice in the U.S., the purchase must be for personal use, and the drug must have the same active ingredient, route of administration, dosage form and strength as a prescription drug approved by the Secretary.
The McCain amendment would improve drug safety, not threaten it. And it would open up trade to lower cost drugs.
We need to make sure Americans have even greater, more affordable access to life-saving drugs by opening the doors to competition in the global pharmaceutical industry.
I urge my colleagues to join me in support of the McCain amendment because it takes us in that direction.
I yield the floor.