The web site reports “Yesterday, the Senate defeated Sen. Dorgan’s (D-ND) drug importation amendment, and also defeated an alternative offered by Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ).”
WATCHDOG: This was another example of how special interests are preventing Congress and the Obama Administration from enacting cost curtailing reforms that would bring relief to the overcharged and underserved American public.
Sen. Byron Dorgan’s proposal would have enabled the import and re-import of pharmaceuticals from other countries, just as has been done for over twenty years by the European Union. Dorgan purports that our consumers have to pay much more, sometimes many times as much, of the price for which the exact same product by the same manufacturer sells for outside our country.
Dorgan also points out that drugs are imported illegally in huge quantities (a hundred thousand packages a day via the Postal Service) and making imports legal would enable the government to regulate and control quality.
Sen. John McCain joined Dorgan in imploring fellow senators to stand up to the pharmaceutical lobby that represents one of the largest political contributors and to approve the amendment.
Listening to Dorgan and McCain made the Watchdog very proud that such leaders exist. A wag of a tail for a noble cause, albeit it doomed to failure.
