[Pages S2963-S2964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

  Mr. WELCH. Madam President, it is good to see you and be with you.
  Madam President, American families are struggling with the cost of 
living, and one of the biggest challenges they face is the incredibly 
high cost of prescription drugs.
  Last week, President Trump signed a new Executive order that tries to 
implement international reference pricing on prescription drugs for 
Americans. At his press conference, President Trump called out 
pharmaceutical companies for ``price gouging,'' which he described as a 
``great American rip off.''
  I agree with President Trump. Prescription drugs are too expensive in 
America, and we are getting ripped off. There is no reason that 
pharmaceutical companies should charge American patients more than they 
charge people in other countries. These excessive price-gouging 
practices have forced many Americans to pay four times, five times, 
even six times for the same lifesaving medications as folks in other 
countries pay. There is absolutely no justification for that.
  Now, in the last Congress, the Inflation Reduction Act was a 
significant step toward combating Big Pharma's price gouging and 
lowering prices for American patients. That act allowed Medicare the 
ability to negotiate drug prices for the first time ever.
  By the way, that is something that all other countries do. They 
protect their citizens from price gouging.
  That bill meant 20,000 Vermonters who take one or more of the first 
10 drugs selected by Medicare for negotiation will see lower prices 
starting in 2026. That can't come soon enough. Over 27,000 Vermonters 
will save an average of 600 bucks annually thanks to the $2,000 annual 
out-of-pocket cost cap that began in January of 2025. The Inflation 
Reduction Act will save senior Vermonters on Medicare a total of more 
than $21 million on prescription drugs.
  But when you are the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry, you 
have a lot of tricks up your sleeve to thwart any policy that cuts into 
your profits. One of Big Pharma's favorite refrains is that reference 
pricing--where we pay essentially the same as everybody else pays, not 
five times more--will put a strain on research and innovation. That is 
false.
  The fact of the matter is that over two decades, the world's largest 
biopharmaceutical companies have spent way more on advertising and way 
more on administrative costs--including, by the way, multimillion-
dollar CEO pay packages--than they have spent on research and 
development.
  By the way, what they do spend on research and development is 
subsidized by taxpayers.
  So while pharma is doing these maneuvers to keep prices up, real 
people are hurting. On average, Americans spend over $1,400 on 
prescription drugs every year. That is the highest per capita spending 
in the world, and it is one of the reasons why healthcare costs are so 
high--by the way, not just with the cost for Medicaid and Medicare but 
for employers who care about their employees and are fighting against 
ever-increasing insurance premiums that make that almost out of reach 
or make them make a decision between increasing pay, which workers want 
and workers need, and maintaining healthcare benefits that workers want 
and workers need.
  And there is a part of this that I think is really sad and 
particularly

[[Page S2964]]

cruel on the part of pharma. They have this incredible pricing power 
that comes, in part, because of the patent that they are granted. It 
comes, in part, because there is a market that is created through 
taxpayers with Medicare and Medicaid; but it is exploited because what 
pharma knows is what you and I know: If a member of your family, if 
your partner, a person you love is in need of a medication, you will do 
whatever it takes. You will get a second mortgage if you have a home. 
You will postpone getting a car that you need. You will go into your 
retirement savings. Whatever it takes.
  So this predatory practice of taking advantage of the love one 
American has for another to exploit on the pricing side is, in my view, 
quite outrageous. But the cruelty of the situation is that you can have 
folks in Vermont, just miles from the border in Canada, where right 
over across the border, folks are paying five times less than what we 
pay on the Vermont side of the border.
  And I have heard from so many folks--and I will bet you have heard 
similar stories--who have told me the story of dealing with, in this 
case, type 1 diabetes, and they are trying to get their mental health 
back in a better place.
  The medication they were put on at the beginning of the year was 
helping, but the cost more than tripled, suddenly, and they can't 
afford to pay 800 bucks a month. And they are worried about a relapse.
  And that story isn't unique. Every day, folks in Vermont and in red 
and blue States across the country are paying more for their drugs than 
the same folks are paying for in other countries.
  And, by the way, one of the things that I find so compelling about 
this is we agree, both sides of the aisle, that costs for Americans are 
too high. We agree, both sides of the aisle, that folks need 
healthcare. And we do agree, most of us, that the pharma prices are way 
too high. So this is something, in my view, we can and should do 
together.
  The Inflation Reduction Act has reined in pharma's abusive tactics--
but only minimally--by forcing them to the table for the first time. 
That is good, but we need to do more.
  Trump's Executive order is implying the ``poke it with a stick'' 
strategy, announcing a new policy and waiting to see what happens. His 
new Executive order will face the same practical challenges this time 
around as it did in Trump's first administration from pharmaceutical 
companies looking to obscure the pricing margins. They tell us how 
tough times are, even as on the phone calls with Wall Street analysts, 
they are saying how wonderful times are.
  And we have to face up to that in order, as Congress, to support a 
lower price approach, which includes negotiation and includes reference 
pricing.
  Patients across the country who can't afford these drugs need it now. 
They need them now, not in 10 years.
  And the American people, they do want action in lowering prescription 
drug prices. And for the life of every person I talk to in Vermont, and 
I am sure this is true with the folks you talk to in Florida, they just 
can't understand why we have to pay five times more than folks in other 
countries.
  And they particularly can't understand it when our taxpayers have 
provided much of the funding for research that went into the creation 
of these drugs in the first place.
  I am very proud to join with my colleague from Missouri Senator 
Hawley in introducing bipartisan legislation that will offer relief for 
millions of patients by prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from 
selling drugs here in the United States at higher prices than the 
international average. Very basic, very fair.
  Our bill will put an end to Big Pharma's practice of forcing 
Americans to pay the highest prices in the world for medications. The 
bottom line is that President Trump has issued an Executive order that 
I support. My hope is that he is going to follow through because we are 
in the need of leadership from the President of the United States and 
the influence he has in Congress to get us and both sides of this 
Capitol to get international reference pricing and to make more 
progress on price negotiation, all for the goal of making lifesaving 
medications more accessible to folks on Medicare, folks on Medicaid, to 
folks who have private insurance, and also to bring down the costs for 
our employers who are facing relentless upward spikes in healthcare 
premiums.
  So I will extend the same challenge to President Trump that he 
extended to the pharmaceutical companies. Let's get real, as President 
Trump put it in his inimitable way, don't get cute about avoiding the 
responsibility we have to bring down prescription drug prices.
  So I call on my colleagues and I call on President Trump to follow 
words with actions. We have got to follow through on this debate. We 
know how to do it, to bring down Big Pharma's prices and stand up to 
their greed and support the Hawley-Welch bill to ensure that no one in 
America ever faces an impossible choice between paying for 
prescriptions that they need or putting food on the table or paying the 
rent or fixing a broken-down car.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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