Opening foreign

markets will drive down costs, lawmaker says

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- First District Congressman Gil Gutknecht brought his crusade for lower-priced prescription drugs to New Ulm Wednesday.

In his first visit to New Ulm following his re-election to Congress last November, Gutknecht explained his plan for bringing down drug prices to residents of Ridgeway on German, a catered living complex.

Because of the high cost of prescription drugs in the United States, conservative estimates are that American seniors will spend $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years for prescription drugs, Gutknecht said.

Being able to buy prescription drugs from Canada, Europe or even Mexico would save American seniors about $630 billion over that same period, Gutknecht said.

Because of his crusade, Gutknecht said, "The pharmaceutical companies don't like me very much. I'm No. 1 on their hit list."

Gutknecht said there are over 600 pharmaceutical lobbyists in Washington, and "they're wining and dining and contributing to a number of congressmen's campaigns, but they didn't contribute to my campaign. I couldn't be happier."

He showed a chart comparing prices of 15 commonly used prescription drugs in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Prepared with figures from Life Extension Foundation, the chart showed that, for example, a 30-day supply of Coumadin, a blood thinner, cost $64.88 in the U.S. and $15.80 in Europe.

"A lot of people have been led to believe that the cheapest drugs are in Canada, but Europe is cheaper. Mexico is even cheaper, but because of the situation there, I'm not going to promote people going to Mexico for their prescription drugs," Gutknecht said.

The pharmaceutical companies' only defense is that they spend a lot of money on research and the safety issue, that drugs purchased in foreign countries may have been tampered with, Gutknecht said.

"How many people would you guess have died in this country as a result of taking foreign-purchased drugs?" he asked.

"The answer is zero. Not one person has died from taking foreign-purchased drugs."

If safety was an issue, he continued, the technology for counterfeit-proof packaging and continuous tracking with bar-coding is available so "we can guarantee safety. In fact, prescription drugs would be safer traveling in a UPS package than the way the pharmaceutical companies bring prescription drug components into the country now--in unsecure barrels that sit for weeks on the docks."

In fact, prescription drugs coming from foreign countries are safer than the food U.S. companies import from other countries, Gutknecht said.

"Tons and tons of foods come into the country, and little of it is inspected. It's estimated that 2 percent of all food imported is contaminated with salmonella and other bacteria."

The major problem, however, is that the federal government is subsidizing the pharmaceutical countries in three significant ways that keep the price of prescription drugs high, Gutknecht continued.

"We subsidize pharmaceutical companies through the tax code by giving them deductions and tax credits for research. We also subsidize the industry in basic research. This year we will spend $23 billion of taxpayer dollars on research. And we provide them a protected market."

Gutknecht said American citizens can't import prescription drugs legally.

"We should open these markets to bring down prices."

Gutknecht also gave a brief overview of his recent trip to Germany to meet with senior members of the German Bundestag, the lower house of its parliament. He said he gave them each a Hermann bobblehead and invited them to come to New Ulm next year.

On his return, he said he stopped at the military hospital at Ramstein Air Force Base near Frankfurt to visit wounded soldiers.

"Many of them were severely wounded, but I was just amazed by their spirit," Gutknecht said. "Several wounded marines flew back to the states on the same flight I was on so I got a chance to talk to them some more."