Senate Proceeding on Oct 7th, 2009 :: 1:55:50 to 2:10:00
Total video length: 9 hours 32 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Download OptionsEmbed Video

Views:37 Duration: 0:14:10 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

1:55:50 to 2:10:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Byron Dorgan

1:55:52 to 1:56:12( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: quorum call: a senator: mr. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. me spend a few moments talking about this issue of reimportation of prescription drugs and the history of it and the work that many of us have done together. a large group of members of the nate, incding senator

1:56:13 to 1:56:34( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: mccain, working on this issue. senator mccain has offered an amendmen finished discussing, and as i understand would prohibit the use of f appropriated under t preventing indiv wholesalers or pharmacists from importing certain prescription drugs. that's in the title.

1:56:35 to 1:56:55( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: it mccain suggested perhaps a point of order against it. i don't know because it would be legislating on an appropriations bill. but in any event, whatever the circumstances with this amendment, i was a bit surprised to see this amendment on this bill, b to offer amendments. let me say that senator mccain is a part of a group of us that

1:56:56 to 1:57:16( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: have worked we have worked on a piece of legislation called the dorgan-snowe legislation. i and senator snowe as co-sponsor and many others including senator mccain as a co-sponsor have worked on this issue for a long, long time. the fact is the appropriate place to address this, in my judgment, is in the health car

1:57:17 to 1:57:38( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: bill that's going to floor in the next couple of weeks. i have said previously that i -- i bipartisan bill as an amendment. we have in the united statesenate, republicans and democrats. it ranges from the late ted kennedy, senator ted kennedy, to

1:57:39 to 1:57:59( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: john mccain and a wide range of senators on both sides of the political aisle. that has been the support for a piece of legislation that i think addresses a very important issue. let me describe the issue, if i might. i have had in my desk here in the senate two bottles that contain medicine -- thes are this is lipitor, and the

1:58:00 to 1:58:21( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: medicine that would be contained in these bottles is made in ireland by a company that produces lipitor. it is the most popular cholesterol- america, by far. and so when it is made in ireland in a plant that is inspected by the -- by the f.d.a., the medicine is then

1:58:22 to 1:58:42( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: sent all around the these two bottles, as you can see, are these two bottles contained identical tablets, 20 milligrams of lipitor made in the same place. so it's the same manufacturing, the same pill, put in the same bottle, made by the same company. difference -- one is shipped to canada, one is

1:58:43 to 1:59:04( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: united states. difference -- price. here's the one that was shipped to canada. this is $1.83 per tablet. this was sent to the united states. $4.48 per the only now, why is that the case? because the american people are charged the highest prices for

1:59:05 to 1:59:25( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: brand name prescription drugs in the world. the highest prices in the world for brand name drugs. in this case, we tablet. someone else pays $1.43.

1:59:26 to 1:59:46( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: it doesn't matter in it's england, italy, germany, spain. we pay the highest prices in the world, and it's unfair. so the questio problem? of course there's a problem. we have got a whole lot of folks in this country that can't figure out how they are going to affo groceries and their medicine. so they go get their medicine first at the pharmacy and the groc

1:59:47 to 2:00:10( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: much they can eat later. of course this is a problem. i have described the guy who sat on a straw bale once at a farm a while back, 80 years old who told me in a little meeting we had in a farm yard, my wife has fought breast cancer for three years. she and we've spent all of those three years driving to canada to

2:00:11 to 2:00:32( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: try to buy tamoxifen where it's sold 80% less -- an 80% lower price in canada for the identical prescription drug. so my wife and drive up and get tamoxifen in canada. and the reason he can do that is, apparently, at the border, a small amount of personal use, up

2:00:33 to 2:00:54( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: to 30 days personal use drugs will be allowed to be brought over without a hassle. but the question is what about the rest of the american people who can't drive to the border or go to another country and access the same prescription drugs, same pill put in the same bottle by the same company who decided to charge the american people the highest prices in the world,? what about those people?

2:00:55 to 2:01:15( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: my point is to have a big health care bill on the floor of the senate sometime in the next few weeks. oh, it's been through this committee and that committee. it's been a long, tortured trail. lord knows every sine the press we read the next little news item about who said what about this. one way or another we're going to have some

2:01:16 to 2:01:36( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: kind of healthare reform on the floor of the senate. will it pass? will it be omnibus? will it be comprehensive? i don't know any of those things. i do know this. that the gang of s the gang in the finance committee or the gang in the "help" committee is going to become a gang of 100 or 100 gangs o one when it gets to the floor of the united states senate, and everybody's going to have their amendments because most members of the united states senate have not had an

2:01:37 to 2:01:57( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: opportunity to weigh in on health care at this their own views and their own amendments. they're not on the committee, not part of a small gang. well, let me just say on behalf of snowe, it is the snowe-dorgan legislation with respect to prescription drug reimportation which includes sen as a cosponsor that when health

2:01:58 to 2:02:20( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: care comes to the floor of this united states sen count on it, that there's going to be an amendment and there's going to be a vote on the issue of the prices of prescription drugs. oh, there perhaps are some people that don't want it. i under they don't want to have a vote on that. but in my judgment there, cannot be credible efforts to health care if you don't address

2:02:21 to 2:02:41( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: the issue of health care costs, the relentless, rising cost of health care. and part of that, and not an si the question of the relentless run-up of prescription drug costs every single year. take a look at the increased prices for prescription drugs every year, and then think about

2:02:42 to 2:03:03( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: the people out there trying t pay for this. i understand that senior citizens have the opportunity under part-d of medicare to have some drug coverage. and inderstand there's a problem with that, there's what is called a doughnut hole in the washington lexicon, but -- and i also understand that somebody made a deal with pharmaceutical industry for $80 billion over ten years,

2:03:04 to 2:03:25( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: which is a relatively small part of their gross revenues, in order to fill part of the doughnut hole with 50% off on brand-name drugs. i understand all that. i wasn't a part of it. nor was anybody that i know of in this chamber., and the question is, what about all of the rest of the american people and the fact that they are now charged the highest prices in the world for

2:03:26 to 2:03:46( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: brand-name prescription drugs? is it fair? i say no. and we will offer an amendment. my colleague says promised and he was concerned about -- i understand all that. all i'm saying is we're going to have this debate, this amendment and this vote, and it's going to be on health care and that's where it ought to be. it ought to be on the health

2:03:47 to 2:04:07( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: care bill. now, i know that when we this discussion, we're going to have people say, well, if you don't allow the prescription drug folks, the pharmaceutical industry to charge these prices in our country, they'll do less research in finding cures for these ddly diseases. well, do you know what? the fact is, they spend more money on promotion, marketing

2:04:08 to 2:04:29( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and advertising than they do on research. that's just a fact. i m morning and turn the television set on perhaps while you're brushing or teeth or something and then listen to the ads the ads just push at you every single day. go ask your doctor today. it's wednesday, ask your doctor, is the purple pill right for you? i don't know what the purple

2:04:30 to 2:04:51( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: pill is but it makes you feel like you should go ask somebody if i should be taking the purple pill. go ask your might need go ask your doctor what you ought to ought to be taking that you don't now know about or aren't taking. all these things are pushed at consumers in circumstances where the only person who can prescribe that prescription drug

2:04:52 to 2:05:12( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: is a doctor who's decided you need for your hea every single day relentlessly across this country on television, in the journals and newspapers and -- and publications, it says, go check with your doctor, ask your doctor if you shouldn't be taking this medicine. well, what about cutting back on so

2:05:13 to 2:05:33( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: price of prescription drugs? how abo that? let me make one o other point, if i might. my colleague indicated that he's offered this, which is a funding limitation on prescr drugs.you know, the fact is, --you know, the fact is, this has been a long and difficult path to pass legislation. and i understand.

2:05:34 to 2:05:54( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: were i working for the pharma understand why you want to retain this little piece in federal law that says the only entity that can import drugs into this country is the company that it. i wanted w i understand why they want that to be the case, because it allows them to price in this country however they want to price. but we are told constantly that

2:05:55 to 2:06:15( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: this is a new economy, a economy if it's a global economy, then what about allowing the american people the freedom to access that global economy to find the identical f.d.a.-approved prescription drug where it's sold for half the price? and they say, yeah,ut do you know what? if we do that open it up to counterfeit drugs

2:06:16 to 2:06:37( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and so on. well, guess what? europe has been doing this for 20 years. it's something called parallel trading in europe. if you're in germany and want to buy a prescription drug france, if you're in spain and want to buy a prescription drug from england, that's not problem. they have a -- a plan that's called parallel trading. it's been going on for 20 years. and there's no counterfeit

2:06:38 to 2:07:00( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: issues of any significance at all. europe can do it and we can't? we can't keep track of this? the legislation that i and senator snowe and many oer including senator mccain, have put together carefully has all kinds of safety measures that will dramatically improve the safety of that are now sold. it requires pedigrees be established on batch lots so

2:07:01 to 2:07:21( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: that you can track back, everything. and the only proposal that we are suggesting that the american people be given the freedom to do is to access that f.d.a.-approved drug -- yes, only f.d.a.-approved drug -- only from countries in which the chain of custody is identical to ours that's all we're talkingbout.

2:07:22 to 2:07:43( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: but that does it the right way. that says, here's a plan. it funds the f.d.a. to be able to make certain that the drug supplies are safe and so on. this is the right way to do this. that's why we've taken a, long time to it's a piece of legislation that has all of the elements that you would want to have that gives the american people the freedom

2:07:44 to 2:08:04( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: to get lower-priced drugs, first-degree fad-approved drugs -- f.d.a.-approved drugs where they are because they would have that freedom would put downward pressure on drug prices here in this country because the pharmaceutical industry will be required to reprice their drugs in the united let me say, as i always have to

2:08:05 to 2:08:26( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: say, i don't have a gri against the pharmaceutical industry. i think it is a great industry, and i think it produces wonderful miracle drugs that, if taken -- prescription drugs, if taken, can keep you out of a acute care hospital bed, which would be far more expensive. prescription drugs, taken, in many cases can manage a disease that otherwise would

2:08:27 to 2:08:47( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: have you in a debilitated condition. i appreciate the research they do. i appreciate the new drugs they develop let me say this, that a substantial amount of work with respect to the devel new drugs is done with public funding, taxpayers' dollars through the national institutes of health. the knowledge from which then

2:08:48 to 2:09:08( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: is -- goes to the pharmaceutical industry to be able to create these drugs. that's a part of it. another part of it is the research good for you, i say. my grief isn't against an industry. i don't want to tarnish this industry. all i want to say is, we deserve fair prices. this country and the consumers in this country deserve fair pricing.

2:09:09 to 2:09:29( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and we've been trying years to get this done. and if we bring health care reform to the floor of the united states senate and say we're going to do something about health care costs and prices and fail to do something about prescription drug costs in which the american peopl the highest prices for

2:09:30 to 2:09:50( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: brand-name drugs, then in my judgment we will have failed miserably. so it is my full intention that when we have health care on the floor, which i expect to be within a week or two weeks or whenever it ces it's coming, for sure, i will be here a demand the opportunity to offer this amendment, because there

2:09:51 to 2:10:00( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: are 30 members of the united states senate, republicans and democrats alike, who've done the work to put that has all of the