By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – I never thought I'd see it happen. Washington is listening to its constituents and the pharmaceutical manufacturing lobby is losing its clout. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
According to the New York Times, this is not what Republican leaders expected. As part of a deal made with Missouri Republican representative Jo Ann Emerson, if Ms. Emerson would vote in favor of a broad Medicare prescription drug benefit, Republican leaders would not fight a bill legalizing the importation of drugs. Not just any drugs, but drugs that are already sold in the U.S. - something pharmaceutical companies have been fighting against with all their might and money. But guess what? Some House Republicans are joining Ms. Emerson in the battle and there's a momentum building in support of the "reimportation" bill.
These Republicans are just as fed up, like the rest of us, with paying higher prescription prices than most any other civilized country. The Times reports, according to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, a Canadian health agency: " drug prices in the United States were 67% higher than those in Canada, and twice those of Italy and France." And if you're still not appalled, American consumers are contributing to more than half of the drug industry's worldwide revenues. And it's not because more of us are sick.
So drug companies are pulling out all the stops. They've teamed up with some abortion opponents, sending flier to the very conservative, warning the passage of this bill would mean easy access to the abortion pill RU-486. Shouldn't have done that. A few conservative Republicans, who oppose abortion but are for the importation bill, became furious over linking the two issues together.
And you wish it wasn't so, but many of these Republican representatives are speaking out because of their personal experiences. One Congressman told the Times a breast cancer drug that his wife takes costs $360 a month in the U.S. It's $60 a month in Germany. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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