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Thursday, August 17, 2000

U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht is on a prescription drug tour.

No, he isn’t going to Canada to buy the same prescription medicines for half their price in the United States.

No, he isn’t going to Mexico where they cost even less.

Instead, he is visiting Northfield, Winona, Faribault, Owatonna, Mankato, Waseca and Austin.

Gutknecht is pitching his own Drug Import Fairness Act, which recently passed Congress.

His bill is aimed at stopping the Food and Drug Administration from standing between American consumers and lower drug prices.

"Too many seniors are having to choose between food and medicine. This is wrong," Gutknecht told a crowd Wednesday at Sacred Heart Care Center in Austin.

According to Gutknecht, Americans, mainly seniors, pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and he showed a price comparison to prove it: Prozac, $36.12 in the United States, $18.50 in Europe; Claritin, $44 in the United States and $8.75 in Europe; Glucophage, $54.49 in the United States and $4.50 in Europe.

"Right now," Gutknecht said, "Prilosec, the commonly prescribed ulcer medication, costs around $100 in the Twin Cities, $50 in Canada and only $17 in Mexico."

The congressman blamed the pharmaceutical industry for the outrageous prices, but said the FDA, Department of Justice, Clinton administration and Congress all shared some of the blame for allowing the prices of prescription drugs to rise so dramatically and, in the case of the FDA, for preventing drugs from being marketed in the United States.

Gutknecht’s bill proposes to allow the import of prescription drugs made in FDA-approved facilities around the world. The drugs also would have to meet FDA labeling requirements.

According to Gutknecht, the Justice Department’s share of the blame comes from allowing mergers that have resulted in even less competition.

"The Justice Department has done a pretty lousy job of enforcing anti-trust laws in my opinion," he said.

However, the Minnesota Republican said Congress also shared the blame.

"Ultimately, the buck stops with the U.S. Congress, but we can change the law and become a part of the solution," he said.

By opening up new prescription drug markets, Gutknecht expects the price of drugs to drop by 30 percent to 50 percent immediately.

However, he also believes the pharmaceutical companies will fight hard to prevent this from happening and he showed examples of advertisements designed, Gutknecht said, to "scare people into believing the imported drugs are not safe."

"The idea that American consumers are going to get counterfeit drugs is a bogus argument," he said.

According to Gutknecht, Minnesota’s 641,000 seniors include 64 percent without prescription drug insurance coverage.

By updating Medicare laws, prescription drugs can become "affordable, available and voluntary" for consumers.

Among the audience of Sacred Heart Care Center residents were others, including state Senate candidate Grace Schwab of Albert Lea and state representative candidate Jeff Anderson of Austin, plus Ken Rolfson of the Austin chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons, retired Aid Association for Lutherans fraternal benefits society representative Bob Goetz and Mower County Chores program coordinator Nancy Donahue.

Gutknecht kept their attention, one and all, sticking to the subject and responding to questions with straight answers.

Time and again, he said the solution – at least part of it – was a simple economic principle: open markets will level prices.