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Bill Cassidy Blocks Sanders' Bill To Force Companies To Lower Drug Prices, Then He Responds
Forbes Breaking News
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5/21/2025
During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a bill that would require drug companies to lower prices that was then blocked by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
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00:00
Senator from Vermont.
00:01
Mr. President, I ask that the quorum call be vitiated.
00:04
Without objection.
00:07
Mr. President, I know that my Republican colleagues
00:10
like to do what the President asks them to do.
00:17
They agree with him on virtually everything.
00:19
So today I'm going to make life easy for my Republican colleagues.
00:23
I am going to ask them to support legislation,
00:28
extremely important legislation,
00:31
than in fact does what President Trump claims that he wants to do.
00:37
Mr. President, on May 20th, just a few days ago,
00:44
President Trump said the following.
00:49
I am cutting, let me go, quote,
00:54
not only that, remember,
00:55
I am cutting drug prices by 85%.
00:59
This is what President Trump said a few days ago.
01:04
I am cutting drug prices by 85%.
01:07
Right now, I'm saving.
01:09
I'm saving the whole thing
01:11
because I did something nobody was willing to do.
01:14
Other countries pay a tiny fraction of what we do,
01:18
and I instituted favored nations.
01:21
We're now going to pay the lowest in the world.
01:25
We will be the equivalent of the lowest country in the world.
01:28
People go to London, they go to Canada,
01:30
they go to other countries, many other countries,
01:32
because they want to buy their pharmaceutical products,
01:35
their drugs, at a fraction of the cost.
01:38
We are going to have the lowest cost of anywhere in the world.
01:42
No one else could do that but me, end of quote.
01:47
That's President Trump a few days ago.
01:53
Well, I don't usually agree with President Trump on anything,
01:58
but in fact, on this issue, he makes a very strong point.
02:03
In the United States today, we have a health care system
02:07
that is broken, it's dysfunctional, and it is cruel.
02:13
It is a system which spends twice as much per capita
02:17
on health care as any other major country,
02:22
while 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured.
02:27
And one out of four Americans today
02:33
cannot afford the cost of the drugs their doctors prescribe,
02:38
and it is a system where over 60,000 people a year die
02:43
because they don't get to a doctor on time.
02:47
While the current system makes huge profits
02:50
for the large drug companies,
02:54
huge profits for the insurance companies,
02:57
it is obviously failing the needs of ordinary Americans.
03:03
So what is the United States Congress doing
03:06
to address this crisis?
03:10
Well, right now, sadly and tragically,
03:13
the Republicans are trying to ramp through
03:15
a so-called reconciliation bill
03:16
which would deny coverage, take away coverage,
03:23
for up to 13.7 million Americans,
03:28
according to the Congressional Budget Office.
03:31
In other words, in the midst of a terrible health care crisis,
03:35
this legislation makes a very bad situation much worse.
03:41
We cannot allow that to happen.
03:44
So what should we do?
03:48
Well, in my view, health care is a human right.
03:51
We should do what every other major country on earth does
03:53
and guarantee health care to all people.
03:55
But today, I want to get back
03:57
to what President Trump said a few days ago.
04:01
And what he said is that the American people
04:04
are sick and tired of paying by far the highest prices
04:06
in the world for prescription drugs.
04:09
And he is right.
04:11
Whether you are a Democrat or Republican
04:14
or an Independent or Progressive or a Conservative,
04:16
you understand that there is something wrong
04:20
when Americans can't afford the high cost of prescription drugs
04:23
and the drug companies make over $100 billion a year in profits.
04:28
Let me give you just a few examples of the current situation
04:33
regarding prescription drug costs in America.
04:36
While it costs just $5 to manufacture Ozempic,
04:41
that is a widely used drug right now,
04:45
Novo Nordis, the manufacturer of Ozempic,
04:48
makes obscene profits by selling this drug
04:54
for more than $1,000 in the United States.
04:56
That drug costs $76 in France, $85 in Germany,
05:03
and $170 in Canada.
05:07
But it's not just Ozempic.
05:11
Prescription drug after prescription drug
05:13
costs far more in this country to purchase
05:18
than in other countries, in some cases, 10 times more.
05:23
So what are we going to do about it?
05:24
Well, I think it might be a good idea for my Republican friends
05:27
to listen to what the President of the United States said.
05:34
And today we are going to offer my Republican friends
05:39
the opportunity to achieve the goals
05:43
that President Trump has talked about.
05:46
The problem with President Trump's initiative
05:50
is that he is mostly just talking.
05:58
The executive order that he has introduced and signed
06:02
does not do what he says he wants to do.
06:06
Just don't take my word for it.
06:11
An expert at Harvard University was recently quoted as saying,
06:13
quote,
06:14
The executive order reads more like an aspirational statement
06:18
than a serious attempt to initiate a policy change.
06:21
End of quote.
06:23
The Wall Street Journal, no great friend of mine,
06:26
their analyst said the order was, quote,
06:29
More bark than bite.
06:33
Since issuing the executive order,
06:36
President Trump has gone on Fox News
06:39
and while talking about differences in American prices
06:43
and international prices, he said, quote,
06:46
He ended it.
06:47
Good news.
06:48
It's all over.
06:48
He ended it.
06:50
We no longer pay the highest prices in the world
06:53
for prescription drugs, according to President Trump.
06:56
During that same interview, he said, quote,
07:00
The drug companies were great.
07:02
End of quote.
07:03
The drug companies apparently even told him,
07:05
Look, it is time.
07:06
End quote.
07:08
Just yesterday, at a press conference with Speaker Johnson,
07:10
he claimed he is, quote,
07:12
Cutting drug prices by 80 to 85 percent
07:16
because he stopped the scam.
07:20
Well, there you go.
07:21
Good news, America.
07:23
The president said it must be true
07:25
because he would not lie.
07:27
Drug prices are down by 80, 85 percent.
07:30
Anyone really believe that?
07:32
Nobody does.
07:35
If we want to, on the other hand,
07:38
do more than just talk,
07:40
we've got to do something,
07:42
and the way we do it is with some serious legislation,
07:45
and that is the legislation
07:46
that I have introduced today.
07:48
If we want to actually lower the outrageously high cost
07:54
of prescription drugs in America,
07:57
we need to take on the pharmaceutical industry
08:01
in a way that President Trump
08:04
has never even thought about doing.
08:06
In other words, we need less talk.
08:10
We need more action.
08:11
And that is why I've introduced legislation
08:14
to make sure that Americans pay no more
08:18
than people in other countries
08:19
for the exact same prescription drug.
08:23
Unlike President Trump's executive order,
08:27
my bill doesn't just ask drug companies
08:31
nicely, please, to lower prices.
08:34
My legislation makes it clear
08:37
that drug companies must lower prices for Americans
08:42
to those they charge people in other countries.
08:47
In other words, what we are finally saying is
08:49
if you're charging the people in the UK
08:52
100 bucks for this prescription drug,
08:55
that's what you're going to charge the people
08:57
in the United States, not 10 times more.
08:59
And the difference between my legislation
09:03
and Trump's so-called executive order
09:06
is that if the pharmaceutical industry refuses
09:11
to do the right thing and substantially lower drugs,
09:16
my bill will allow other companies
09:18
to sell the same prescription drugs
09:22
at a far lower cost.
09:23
In other words, generics can come onto the market
09:26
and sell the drug for a fraction of the price.
09:34
So, President Trump says
09:37
he supports making sure Americans pay no more
09:41
than people in other countries
09:43
for prescription drugs.
09:45
President Trump says campaign, quote,
09:49
campaign contributions can do wonders,
09:53
but not with me and not with the Republican Party.
09:58
We are going to do the right thing,
10:00
something that the Democrats have fought for many years,
10:03
end of quote.
10:04
Well, I am just ever so delighted
10:06
that campaign contributions have no impact
10:10
on the Republican Party.
10:12
Could have shocked me, but there we go.
10:14
President Trump said it.
10:16
It must be right.
10:18
So, bottom line here.
10:19
President Trump says he wants to lower the cost
10:23
of prescription drugs in America
10:25
by 80 to 85 percent.
10:29
I agree.
10:31
President Trump has issued an executive order
10:33
which he says will do that.
10:35
It will not do that.
10:38
Legislation that I have introduced
10:40
has real teeth, and it will do that.
10:43
So, I today call upon all of my colleagues,
10:48
especially my Republican colleagues,
10:51
to support this legislation,
10:52
because I know President Trump has said
10:55
that the huge amount of money
10:57
that the pharmaceutical industry gives
10:59
in campaign contributions
11:00
to Democrats and Republicans
11:02
doesn't have any impact on the Republicans.
11:05
They are prepared to stand up to the drug companies.
11:07
So, that is great news.
11:08
Delighted to hear that.
11:09
So, Mr. President, as if in legislative session,
11:15
I ask unanimous consent
11:16
that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
11:24
and Pensions be discharged
11:26
from further consideration of S. 1818,
11:30
and the Senate proceed
11:31
to its immediate consideration further,
11:34
that the bill be considered, read a third time,
11:37
and passed, and the motion to reconsider
11:40
be considered, made, and laid upon the table.
11:43
Is there an objection?
11:45
Reserving the right to object.
11:47
The senator from Louisiana.
11:49
I appreciate the ranking member's interest
11:51
in addressing drug prices.
11:55
And we absolutely have to lower the cost
11:58
of prescription drugs.
12:00
And we absolutely have to acknowledge
12:03
that there is a tension.
12:04
If we do not incentivize
12:07
the development
12:09
of new types of drugs,
12:14
we condemn ourselves
12:15
to continue to die from diseases
12:17
for which there are currently no cures.
12:20
And I say this as a guy
12:21
that has practiced medicine
12:22
or graduated from med school in 1983.
12:27
Let me put it that way.
12:28
When I graduated from medical school,
12:29
Mr. President,
12:30
one of the most common surgeries
12:32
was taking out a portion
12:34
of somebody's stomach.
12:35
I don't mean your belly.
12:36
I mean your stomach,
12:36
where the food goes
12:37
after you swallow it.
12:38
This is how I talk
12:39
to medical students.
12:40
Because of peptic ulcer disease.
12:42
And there came along
12:43
a medicine called cimetidine.
12:45
It was,
12:46
it just changed the landscape.
12:48
And we went from a surgery
12:49
being most common
12:50
to one which was rarely performed
12:53
in six months.
12:55
Cimetidine,
12:55
which is now called Tagamet,
12:57
which is now sold over the counter.
12:58
Just a measure of the innovation,
13:01
which if we had not had
13:02
that innovation then,
13:04
a most common surgery
13:05
would still be removing
13:07
a portion of somebody's stomach
13:08
because of bleeding ulcers.
13:11
More tragically,
13:12
it's pretty tragic
13:13
if you lose part of your stomach,
13:15
when I was a resident in Los Angeles.
13:16
It was when the HIV epidemic came out.
13:19
And all these men,
13:20
they're all men,
13:22
20 to 30,
13:23
came in with something
13:24
we didn't even know
13:25
what the disease,
13:26
didn't have a way to diagnose it,
13:27
so we called it
13:28
the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
13:31
And they all died.
13:33
They all died.
13:34
And I remember saying
13:35
to one of the older physicians,
13:36
why do we even bother treating them?
13:38
Because they all die.
13:40
But because there was an incentive
13:42
for companies
13:43
to come up with cures,
13:46
they did,
13:47
and they stopped dying,
13:49
and they began living.
13:51
That doesn't happen accidentally.
13:53
It happens because
13:54
there's incentive
13:55
to bring a drug
13:56
through expensive studies
13:57
to the market.
13:58
By the way,
13:59
I recently had a doc
14:00
tell me
14:01
who treats HIV positives
14:02
that if the patient
14:03
takes their medicine,
14:04
they die when they're 88
14:06
of Alzheimer's
14:07
or a stroke
14:08
or something else,
14:09
but they should not die
14:10
from an AIDS-related cancer.
14:12
That is the power of innovation,
14:14
and that is the power
14:15
of incentivizing innovation.
14:18
I could go down
14:19
a list of other drugs.
14:20
Melanoma.
14:21
When I was in med school,
14:22
if you got diagnosed
14:23
with melanoma,
14:23
they said go fill out your will.
14:26
Now I have friends
14:27
who have been living
14:28
for eight years,
14:29
ten years longer
14:30
taking immunotherapy
14:32
for melanoma.
14:34
That doesn't just happen.
14:35
That happens
14:36
because you incentivize innovation.
14:38
So what are our diseases
14:39
now for which we have no cure?
14:41
Alzheimer's.
14:42
I lost two parents to it.
14:44
Wouldn't it be great
14:44
if we had a cure for Alzheimer's?
14:46
Pancreatic cancer.
14:48
Esophageal cancer.
14:49
I can just go down
14:50
the list of things
14:51
for which there is no cure,
14:53
but I can tell you
14:54
with the appropriate incentive
14:55
with research taking place,
14:59
in ten years,
15:00
we will speak of those
15:01
diseases as diseases
15:04
of the past,
15:05
as we now speak
15:06
of bleeding peptic ulcer disease
15:07
causing a portion
15:09
of your stomach
15:09
to be resected
15:10
as something
15:11
in the distant past.
15:13
Now, by the way,
15:14
I applaud my colleague,
15:17
I applaud President Trump
15:18
for saying
15:19
that other countries
15:20
are not carrying
15:21
their fair share
15:22
of the load
15:23
for paying for this innovation.
15:25
They should do it, too.
15:27
This is not the way
15:28
to get there,
15:29
but it's absolutely essential
15:31
that they do,
15:32
and my staff is bringing
15:33
something which I invite.
15:34
I will invite my colleague
15:35
from Vermont
15:36
to join us on that
15:37
because it's absolutely essential
15:39
that we have the innovation,
15:41
that we be able to afford it,
15:42
and the only way
15:43
we balance those two
15:44
is if other countries
15:46
pay their fair share.
15:47
But let's return
15:49
to the measure at hand.
15:50
The measure at hand
15:51
sounds simple.
15:52
It is simple.
15:53
It won't succeed.
15:54
Oh, it will succeed
15:55
in lowering prices temporarily,
15:56
but in the long term,
15:58
it will defeat the ability
15:59
to incentivize new innovation.
16:02
And then all drugs
16:03
will be cheap
16:04
because all drugs
16:05
will be old.
16:06
But we need new drugs,
16:07
and we need the incentive,
16:09
and this kills that incentive.
16:11
So for that,
16:12
I object.
16:13
The senator from Vermont.
16:18
I want to thank
16:19
my colleague from Louisiana,
16:22
the chairman of the
16:23
Health Education,
16:24
Labor Pension Committee
16:25
on which I serve,
16:27
for his remarks.
16:28
And I think nobody
16:30
will disagree with him
16:31
that we have seen
16:32
in recent years
16:33
incredible innovation,
16:36
and there are drugs now
16:37
on the market
16:38
that are saving lives
16:39
that 20, 30 years ago,
16:41
10 years ago were not the case.
16:43
And we want to continue
16:44
that innovation.
16:45
No debate about that.
16:47
But all that I'm asking
16:49
my colleague from Louisiana
16:52
to focus on
16:53
is what President Trump said,
16:57
not last year,
16:58
not five years ago,
16:59
it's what he said yesterday.
17:02
And what he said yesterday,
17:03
and I quote,
17:05
Senator Cassidy,
17:07
I, this is President Trump,
17:08
quote,
17:09
I'm cutting drug prices
17:11
by 85%.
17:13
Right now,
17:14
I'm saving.
17:16
I'm saving the whole thing
17:17
because I did something
17:18
nobody was willing to do.
17:20
Other countries pay
17:21
a tiny fraction.
17:23
What we do,
17:24
and I instituted,
17:25
favored nations.
17:26
We're now gonna pay
17:28
the lowest in the world.
17:30
We will be the equivalent
17:31
of the lowest country
17:31
in the world.
17:33
People go to London,
17:33
they go to Canada,
17:34
they go to other countries,
17:35
many other countries,
17:36
but we're gonna do it
17:37
here in the United States,
17:38
end quote.
17:38
That's what he said.
17:40
So all that I am doing,
17:42
Chairman Cassidy,
17:44
is putting into legislative
17:46
effective language
17:48
what the President
17:50
of the United States said.
17:52
And by the way,
17:53
he said, again,
17:55
that the pharmaceutical industry
17:57
and all of their campaign
17:58
contributions
17:59
have no impact
18:00
on Republicans,
18:01
only on Democrats.
18:02
Well,
18:03
maybe that's the case,
18:05
but I doubt that very much.
18:06
So all that I'm asking
18:08
my colleague and friend,
18:09
the Chairman of the Committee,
18:10
to do
18:11
is to put in place
18:13
what President Trump
18:16
said he was doing.
18:19
And what my legislation
18:21
would do
18:21
is exactly what Trump
18:22
talked about.
18:23
It would lower the cost
18:24
of prescription drugs
18:26
to what other countries
18:28
are paying.
18:29
That's what it does.
18:30
It does what Trump said
18:31
he wants to do.
18:32
I would urge
18:33
my friend from Louisiana
18:36
to reconsider.
18:42
With that...
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