US Senator calls on six drug majors to explain international price disparities
March 17, 2010
Senate Special Committee on Aging
Contact: Ashley Glacel
WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, sent letters to the makers of the twelve most-prescribed drugs in the United States, asking them to explain why Americans pay an average of twice as much for prescription drugs as other industrialized nations. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States spends an average of $878 per person on prescription drugs. The average for other industrialized countries is $446.
“Americans pay, on average, twice as much as people in other industrialized countries,” Chairman Kohl states in the letter. “While I firmly believe that drug quality should not be sacrificed for cost, the large discrepancies in the cost of identical drugs cannot be explained by differences in production or manufacturing.” Read more