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[Pages S2733-S2734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Prescription Drug Costs
Madam President, on another matter--relatively shorter compared to
what I just said about flooding--millions of Americans rely on
lifesaving prescription medicine.
I am here to report to my colleagues what Secretary Azar announced
earlier today about making available information on the price of drugs
on television advertising that you see so often about drugs--all kinds
of information but not much information about what a drug costs, and
the public ought to know that.
Americans across the country expect and depend upon breakthrough
drugs to live longer, healthier lives; however, these miracle medicines
won't save lives if people can't afford to take them.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I have been taking a
close look at the drug supply chain in the United States. I am working
to lower drug prices.
By the way, this is being handled in not only a bipartisan way in our
committee, but I believe this will also end up being very bicameral.
The Finance Committee has held a series of hearings on this issue. So
far, we have heard from economists, executives from the pharmaceutical
industry, and pharmacy benefit managers. I have also introduced a
handful of bipartisan bills to increase competition. These bills are
bipartisan, and now we are finding they are even bicameral. In fact,
the House of Representatives tends to be ahead of us here in the Senate
on these issues, so there is bipartisan momentum going to help us
accomplish our goals.
Perhaps more importantly--and I don't think he gets enough credit for
this--we also have President Trump leading the battle from the White
House, based on a speech he made in June last year and based on several
steps Secretary Azar has taken to carry out the edict from President
Trump to lower the prices of prescription drugs. What was announced
today is the most recent step in that direction. I am going to get to
that in just a minute.
There is one common denominator contributing to the high prices
Americans pay for prescription drugs. It boils down to one word--
secrecy. What Secretary Azar did today is attacking that secrecy. There
is zero price transparency in the U.S. healthcare system.
In our system of free enterprise, competition and transparency drives
innovation. It drives higher quality, and it lowers costs. Americans
have to hunt for a good bargain. You can bet your bottom dollar, Iowans
know where to fill up their gasoline tanks, and they do it, in most
instances, I will bet, at the most affordable place. When there is no
transparency, there is no price comparison. That is a big reason there
is sticker shock at the pharmacy counter, and American consumers and
taxpayers are of course paying the price.
The pharmaceutical industry spends a boatload on direct-to-consumer
advertising, which is to the tune of $6 billion a year. That is
probably why the average American today sees nine prescription drug ads
every day. The Food and Drug Administration regulates these ads for
truthfulness and requires the disclosure of side effects, but the
industry however is not required to disclose to consumers how much
drugs cost. Now that is about to change, and that happened this
morning.
I am glad Secretary Azar is making good on President Trump's
commitment to lower drug prices for Americans that he announced in a
speech last
[[Page S2734]]
June. Health and Human Services has finalized its rule to require price
disclosure on TV ads for prescription drugs. Price transparency is a
critical remedy to help cure the high cost of prescription drugs in
America. These regulations will help toward that. It is not a final
solution.
Final solutions are going to come in bipartisan and bicameral
legislation that we are going to consider later this year. Just to
throw out a compliment to Senator Durbin of Illinois, because he and I
worked on this very subject that Senator Azar announced a solution for
by regulation, we tried to get this in a requirement in legislation
that went to the President last year. We did get it through the U.S.
Senate. It did not get through the House of Representatives. Secretary
Azar found, through reading laws we passed many years ago, that he had
the authority to do what the House of Representatives a year ago didn't
have guts enough to do--take on the pharmaceutical companies--because
they opposed the Durbin-Grassley amendment. Now it has been done as a
result of regulation by Secretary Azar, which is the direct result of
instructions given to Secretary Azar by President Trump back in June of
last year that we have to do something to reduce drug prices.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). The Senator from New Hampshire.