Finally, it showed that this industry, by far, has poured the most money into Congress in order to get its way. The overwhelming majority of members of the House and Senate have received campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry also takes advantage of cooperative research agreements and research grants through the National Institutes of Health. These programs subsidize pharmaceutical research and development for all the major pharmaceutical companies. However, when an innovative discovery is made the pharmaceutical company assumes the patent and all the profit, without any agreement on returning that profit to the consumer through reasonable prices.
Pharmaceutical companies produce amazing products from their research and development.
This kind of innovation should not be hindered by anything we do. Last year, pharmaceutical companies profits exceeded that spent on research and development. Marketing and administrative costs are double that spent on research and development, and three times that spent on manufacturing. Mr. Chairman, I have talked about the problem and now let me say a word about a very simple solution. That bill now has 85 co-sponsors in the House.