S. 525: Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2009 (John Kerry, McCain, drugs)

[plannine]

What happens if you get a bill that would help lower drug prices and get members of both parties to support.

You'd get the FDA to oppose it.

With co-sponsors from both parties, Sen. Byron Dorgon's bill to allow importation of drugs from other countries, that were exported from FDA approved plants in the US.

The Co-sponsors
Mark Begich [D-AK]
Jeff Bingaman [D-NM]
Barbara Boxer [D-CA]
Sherrod Brown [D-OH]
Robert Casey [D-PA]
Susan Collins [R-ME]
Kent Conrad [D-ND]
Richard Durbin [D-IL]
Russell Feingold [D-WI]
Charles Grassley [R-IA]
Daniel Inouye [D-HI]
Tim Johnson [D-SD]
Edward Kennedy [D-MA]
John Kerry [D-MA]
Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
Herbert Kohl [D-WI]
Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Carl Levin [D-MI]
Blanche Lincoln [D-AR]
John McCain [R-AZ]
Claire McCaskill [D-MO]
Bill Nelson [D-FL]
Bernard Sanders [I-VT]
Jeanne Shaheen [D-NH]
Olympia Snowe [R-ME]
Arlen Specter [D-PA]
Debbie Ann Stabenow [D-MI]
Jon Tester [D-MT]
John Thune [R-SD]


When it comes to a vote, it will be very clear who has been bought and paid for on something that would lower prices we pay (by estimates) by billions. (Of course the FDA, has been for years a puppet of the industry it is supposed to be watching)

[AeroGuyDC]

Of the Bush-era policies I disagreed with most, it was the prohibition of re-importation and the inability for the government to negotiate drug prices. I don't use a single prescription drug, but the mere thought of such policies still makes me steam to this day.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by AeroGuyDC

Of the Bush-era policies I disagreed with most, it was the prohibition of re-importation and the inability for the government to negotiate drug prices. I don't use a single prescription drug, but the mere thought of such policies still makes me steam to this day.

Something I can agree with you on.........

[JimMe]

Originally Posted by AeroGuyDC

Of the Bush-era policies I disagreed with most, it was the prohibition of re-importation and the inability for the government to negotiate drug prices. I don't use a single prescription drug, but the mere thought of such policies still makes me steam to this day.

Actually Medicare and Medicaid do use the power of government to negotiate drug prices. And clearly you don't have any problem with other countries--Canada, for instance--ripping off American drug companies. "Re-importation" means exactly that. Canada denies American drug manufacturers the right to sell their products to Canadians unless they are heavily discounted. That's a form of trade warfare. So American drug companies expend vast resources to develop and bring a drug to market and the Canadians get the benefit of that R&D and marketing for very little in return. So who pays the freight for these freeloaders? You guessed it--the American consumer. Now you (and those senators you listed) want to extend the scam to allow the American consumer to rip off the drug companies, as well. That approach was tried in Europe with the result that there are very few drug companies left in Europe and very few new drugs being brought to market by the Europeans. So let's kill off the drug industry in the U.S., too. The same industry that has created the drugs we now take for granted but which have improved the lives of people in this country and the world over. That's the way to go. We'll let government develop our new drugs and see how far that takes us.