Members of Congress Slam Prescription Drug Profits

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Members of Congress Slam Prescription Drug Profits

By Rovner

WASHINGTON, May 04 (Reuters Health) - Calling the prescription drug

industry's profits " obscene, " a group of House members and Senators

urged their colleagues to act this year to control the price of drugs.

" People are dying. People are getting sick because they can't afford

their drugs, " said Rep. Bernard , I-Vt. has introduced

legislation that would allow US firms to " re-import " drugs from Canada

and other countries at discounts

that could be passed along to consumers.

The group displayed a series of charts, drawn from information published

last month in Fortune Magazine's annual compilation of the top 500

companies, noting that the drug industry is by several measures the

nation's most profitable.

Indeed, Fortune editors noted in the issue, " Whether you gauge

profitability by median return on revenues, assets or equity,

pharmaceuticals had a Viagra kind of year. "

According to Fortune, profits of the top seven drug companies topped

those of the top seven car companies, the top seven oil companies, the

top seven airline companies and the top seven media companies. Merck

alone, said, had profits higher than those of all the

construction and railroad companies in the Fortune 500 combined.

The numbers also show, the members noted, that the industry makes far

more in profits than it spends on research and development, despite

arguments that it plows most of its revenues back into finding new

drugs.

" We have an industry here that makes exorbitant profit off the sickness,

illness and misery of people. That's obscene, " said Sen. Wellstone,

D-Minn., who has introduced his own legislation to limit prescription

drug prices.

Despite all the attention the issue is getting on Capitol Hill, the

members said, they remain worried about whether Congress will really

address the issue this year. " This Congress is dithering, " said Rep.

Baird, D-Wash. " It is sucking up to the prescription drug

companies, and it is not living up to its responsibilities to the

American people. "

The plan by House and Senate Democrats to fashion a unified prescription

drug plan that would address Medicare coverage of outpatient drugs, but

not prices, is a " mistake, " the members said. Said Wellstone, " If you

just expand the benefit and then say to the prescription drug industry,

'You fill in the blank check,' it's going to be a nightmare. "