drug prices. when members question ceo about the company raising the price of the drug he declined to testify invoking his fifth amendment rights. officials were at the hearing and discuss the approval process for generic drugs. this hearing is four hours. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> please take a seat. welcome everybody the committee on oversight will come to order. without objection where declared a recess at any time. the chairman is responsible under the rules of the house and the role of the committee to maintain order of the committee room, and i will will do that. we have an important hearing today. we have a number of hearings that are very important. today we're talking about the cost of healthcare in our country. because it is growing at an unsustainable rate. congressional budget office reported the federal government will spend $1 trillion on me

when people perceive that drugs are not dangerous, drug use goes up. that's precisely what's happening in the united states. the bowdges has give obama administration has given a green light to marijuana legalization -- >> you are not equating marijuana to heroin, the two don't have the same demographic. >> absolutely, absolutely, i'm a recovered addict myself and i can tell you most addicts start on alcohol or marijuana. if the intent is to cut down on disease, you should be aware that the most comprehensive study that was done on the spread of hiv infection among intravenous drug users was done in philadelphia, and they found that the most common reason that intravenous drug users contracted hiv was unsafe sex practices. needle exchange programs if they are going to be implementshould have a very strong treatment component, due duet people off drugs, that's the safest, including the public who are nondrug users, i didn't hear anything in your previous presentation about having a strong program getting people off the drugs. >> i don't want to be hold

generic drugs, of course, are those drugs that are allowed to come into the market after a drug manufacturer's patent expires over a period of time. generic drugs have to have fda approval also, these copies, but they don't have to have full clinical trials and so a lot of expense is avoided. as a result, more generic drugs on the market create competition and lower prices for consumers. over the last 30 years what we've seen is that today now 80% -- 88% of prescription drugs purchased in the united states are generic drugs. 30 years ago that number was zero. however, in 2012, 26 years after the first law passed, it became clear the drug approval program needed an overhaul. more generic drugs were coming from overseas. companies in china and india were inspected less frequently than american companies. this put patients at risk and companies at a disadvantage. there's a backlog of 4,700 applications waiting to be reviewed and the median approval time to get review of the generic drug was 30 months. that far surpasses the 180-day time frame for review that was laid out in the hatch/waxman amend

drug dealer either. he said he bought the drugs from yet another woodbury high school student - sydney johnson. >> this is becoming even more concerning for law enforcement. because we have not made it out of the high school yet. >> who are these kids that we're talking about? >> they're good kids. they've never been in trouble with the law. they've never been in trouble at school. for the majority of them, straight a's honor society, honor roll kids. >> reporter: and now they were all in serious trouble. tara's parents were stunned when they heard where the police investigation was going. >> i was like, what the -- are you kidding me? brian norlander was the one that gave this to her? how -- what is going on here? >> turned upside down. >> -- shaken? >> turned upside down completely. i-- he would be the last person in the world that i would've imagined that she would've gotten something from. >> responsible kid? >> very responsible, very good influence. >> and he -- he is smart kid. >> reporter: it was

drug use.lso, they discovered that people are more likely, 30% more likely than someone on the street to attend detox or treatment >>> one city down member came out in support, but the department of health declined to say if it would consider the idea. still, highway mike says the day drug users have a safe place to inject can't come soon enough? >> we are in high bridge park, off of 177 street. and as a user, we'll go down here and have all our equipment and what we have to use. if we are by ourselves and something happened, that person wouldn't be found until the next person that happened to use was going that way, or the smell of the stench. >> we are losing people behind the disease of addiction. >> well, it seems counterintuitive. fighting drug addiction giving addicts a place to do drugs. >> coming up, some say it's a bold plan that may hurt more >> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look. new york city. it rivals the

about. >> a synthetic drug? >> yes. >> reporter: the term synthetic drugs refers to a new class of narcotics developed in just the last seven years. they are made from chemicals that can be unpredictable and are sometimes sold masquerading as other better known drugs. tara's case was the first time police in this suburb were dealing with a synthetic drug death. and tara's friends say they knew little, if anything about this new class of drugs. >> i know in our health class, which all high schoolers are required to take, they do speak of synthetic drugs. but it is kind of made out to seem like one of those you're not really gonna see it in your life kind of drugs. >> are there lots of drugs in >> it was casual to hear about marijuana and alcohol in our grade or in our high school. but then you get up into the higher, more dangerous drugs, we wouldn't hear -- really hear about that. >> so at parties, would people be -- they'd be smoking pot, right? >> yeah. it was-- >> drinking? >> uh-huh. >> anything more than th

drug use. heroin overdoses increased for four years. deaths outnumber homicide. tonight i'll tell you about a radical solution to addressing the prop that's proven effective in other countries, but is highly controversial. before i get to that i want you to hear some of what donald trump said about america's heroin epidemic after he won the primary. he begins by saying what he heard from people throughout the state. >> mr trump. please do something. the drugs, the heroin is pouring in. it's so cheap. there's so much of it. the kids are getting stuck and other people are getting stuck. we are going to end it. we are going to end it at the southern border. it's going to be over. >> it's nice to thing that building a wall at the mexican boarder as trump proposes would stop the flow of heroin to the united states, but the failure of the war on drugs convinced many people that law enforcement is not the answer to addressing america's drug problem. officials have turned to the softer side of battling

use and the war on drugs and drug users, this has been a really huge development. >> drug addictionn epidemic, and it is taking too many of our young people. >> we have a huge problem, and i think the big reason is because we're not treating it like the disease that it is. >> it's been true throughout american history that when drugs penetrate into the middle class, particularly the white middle class, politicians panic much more than they do when the drugs are concentrated in poor neighborhoods. and it's not fair, and it's not right, but that's the kind of country that we're living in. >> we need much more in the way of treatment. >> it's heartening for me to see how this nation has reacted to the heroin problem we're now seeing around the country, where we are coming up with public health responses to it and dealing with the underlying problems that caused that addiction in the first place. >> smith: not to be too glib, but isn't that because a lot of white kids are doing heroin? >> i mean, i think that's certainly a factor, you know... >> smith: richard pryor said about cocaine t

is a good drug if the patit drug to me.craig vansandt: i appreciate that. i'd like to change gears a little bit with you all now. we've seen, just from our discussion, that there is a crying need for these drugs. we've seen that there is a very strong profit motive from the companies producing them. how do we meet in the middle? i think part of my question that i want to get there is ... is healthcare a right that citizens have or is it a privilege that people should pay for? ben? ben urick: i, you know, ... healthcare is not a constitutional right in the the courts have said so far. the only people in the united states who have a right to receive healthcare are prisoners, because it's consideed cruel and unusual punishment if they are not given healthcare. do i think that healthcare should be a right? that is how i tend to think, but that is something that i don't think would actually en in the current political climate, right? what we're left with is solutions that really if we want to talk about reducing cost of medications for society, involve more inte

making drugs all around the world. fda's generic drug review program and contrast did not grow significantly. we fell behind in both review and inspection capacity. a backlog accrued. in response to this, in 2012 congress enacted reflecting a negotiated agreement between industry and the fda to address this and modernize the program. it is a five-year program during which industry will pay $300 million per year in fees for service. fda would attempt to meet the progressively more difficult series of performance measures that have to do with review that many other activities as well. that is summarized to my testimony. in the three the three years since this was enacted the fda has met and in many cases exceeded all the performance goals that have been established. this has been a formidable task, in these three years we have been managing over 6000 generic drug applications. about 2500 that were piled up at the start of the program that we had not gotten to and then all almost 3000 that were cemented submitted since th

we completed studies of seizure drugs because all these years later in the drug -- the urologist is not believe they were equivalent. they showed no different. >> your efforts of moving them forward will assist. thank you and i yield back. >> the german from massachusetts. >> the children from tennessee's line of questioning. the costs are prohibitive in terms of trying to develop some of these drugs. massachusetts and in the boston area we have blessed with 29 ipos, small pharmaceutical companies, companies come the market in the last two years. so we do have some growth in the industry. they are not dominating like they were before. she did not do a lick of research, but the drug, and the gentle lady from district of columbia pointed out the next day it went from $13.50 per pill to $750 a pill overnight. and that is disgraceful. there is not a lot of shame at the table today. but this is disgraceful. it is well-known the impact would be great home of the public. so after you in august increase the price of the drug by 5,000 percent people who had no alternative on august 18 attorney e

they actually want to give addicts a safe place to use drugs.it a well-meaning idea that just goes too far? arwhere are you taking me to? >> we're going over here, right quick and then we're going to go down to the bottom. >> okay. >> walk a little with michael bailey. >> we'll come to we'll use that. >> i mean is it hard city to find places to use? >> not really. but you know what? a lot of times we want it secluded, we don't really want to be around society. >> all around the city from parks like this to abandoned buildings and underpasses people are shooting up heroin. >> what's the danger of being out here alone. >> definitely oding if you are getting a shot don't do the taste test first, you the are rushing in there rushing and doing. >> that's where you live? >> where i live, yeah. >> wow. >> and that danger has led droves of drug users to search for a safer place to inject. it's an unspoken secret that they've effectively taken over the bathrooms of community organizations like this one in brooklyn. >> so i'm going to show you or bathroom

[ crying ] >> was brian a drug user, a drug dealer? regularly? >> not that we believe. >> reporter: brian said the drug deal was a one-time thing. something he'd done as a favor for his friend tara. >> do you know what kind of drug it was? >> yup. >> what was it? >> lsd. >> okay. and is it actually lsd, as far as you know, or is it somethin' else? >> i'm fairly positive it is. >> ok. >> reporter: brian was reluctant to say where he got it. but eventually he gave police a name. >> who is alistair berg? >> a friend of mine. >> reporter: officers went right out to find him. they questioned alistair at his home where he confessed to selling brian the drugs, but said he was no drug dealer either. he said he bought the drugs from yet another woodbury high school student - sydney johnson. >> this is becoming even more concerning for law enforcement. because we have not made it out of the high school yet. >> who are these kids that we're talking about? >> they're good kids. they've never been in trouble with the law. school. for the majority of them, str

it's an old drug, a critical drug for people who need it, but it has no patent protection. the only reason we don't see more people entering is there are only about 10,000 prescriptions a year. it's not really profitable for a second company to come in. given that fact, congress could do things like allow the fda to say that a very large generic price increase is equivalent to a drug shortage and in drug shortage we can reimport drugs from western europe -- >> at a lower price. >> that would bring the price down. >> the same drugs? bring it over from britain at a lower price because they get it at a lower price? >> exactly. to be clear i'm talking about that only for sort of these older generic drugs with small patient populations. >> you say congress can change the patent length in terms of how long a company can hold a patent on a particular drug if they are the sole supplier of it. explain that a little bit more for me. >> what we're saying is for the innovative drugs like the hour for hepatitis c, rather than trying to implement price controls or trying to determine wha

center we regulate generic drugs as well as brand drugs. the legislation established the generic drug program has been extraordinarily successful. today about 88% of prescriptions that are given out and spend in the united states are generic drugs saving the public its estimate of almost $1.7 trillion recently. in the last decade the generic drug industry group very rapidly and globalized its operations. the fda generic drug review program did not grow significantly and fell behind those in the review and the inspection capacity and a large backlog of crude. to resolve this in 2012, congress enacted the generic drug user fee act and a negotiated agreement between the generic drug industry and the fda. this was a five-year program during which the industry would pay $300 million per year in fees and fda would attempt to meet a progressively more difficult series of performance measures over that time. in the three years since it was enacted, they met or exceeded all of the performance goals. this has been a formidable task and in these three

drugs. world leaders at a conference in london pledge $10 billion in humanitarian aid for syria. president obama speaks at the annual prayer request at washington d.c. >> at a house hearing on the cost of record entrance prescription drugs, we will learn how they set drug prices. when members question ceo about the company raising the price of the drug he declined to testify invoking his fifth amendment rights. officials were at the hearing and discuss the approval process for generic drugs. this hearing is four hours. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> please take a seat. welcome everybody the committee on oversight will come to order. without objection where declared a recess at any time. the chairman is responsible under the rules of the house and the role of the committee to maintain order of the committee room, and i will will do that. we have an import

now, i've seen "molly" as a club drug but as a therapeutic drug? >> the military once used this as what they imagined could be a truth serum and now there's evidence that suggests that it could help ptsd sufferers. >> yeah and you know, scientists have long been intrigued by the sort of empathic benefits of mdma but now for the first time, there's an fda backed study so that they can see if these results are scientifically quantifiable. >> this serene treatment room nestled in the woods of south carolina... couldn't be further than the pulsing lights and booming music at this electronic music festival. at festivals and nightclubs the illegal drug "molly" or "ecstasy" is part of the culture. called "molly" or "x" on the street, mdma is really methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. it's a psychoactive drug first developed as a blood-clotting agent - later patented as a diet drug. when taken, mdma acts on the brain by causing the neurons to release more serotonin... this also causes the neurotransmitter dopamine as well as hormones like oxytocin to be releas

no remission bit, it's a cure. >> harvoni and orelated drug from the same drug maker, have been proven to be more effective, in cure rates in three months of treatment or less. but the cost of the cure is nearly $100,000, per patient. >> it's very expensive. so even if there is a cut rate discount, it's still very expensive. >> jay costman is her doctor. like most of costman's patients, dundin's health care is covered by state funded medicaid. >> we treat predominantly all inner city low income either insured through public assistance or uninsured taxpayers. >> that means other patients or tamp strapped patients are left to fit the bill. delaying or make it difficult for hep c medical patients to get their treatments. her application was rejected four times. >> denied completely because harvoni is not necessary because you do not meet the hepatitis c criteria. >> translation, the provider says they won't pay for her medical miracle drug until her disease gets worse. frequently reject help c patients are aren't deemed sick enough. to a patient like dara, it's a creug cruel ancruel and p

we have a drug dealer. we have the connection to the le. >> reporter:heext y, 18r-leatenaer arrested with mohan thirty doses of the same ara took. readto be sold >> so,e's mof the stuff. he's peddling it. he's sel it. ot only doeshaveore of e stuff, he has more othe uff knowing that seone has alady di in oucommunity. >> reporter:ettives later doh cole and his attoey, and cole conrmed whatuthorities aeady suspected. he w lying to his clients, tellinthem the drugs were d because he knethey wouldn' want synthetics. >> becau people don't like that stuffthey think it's, they know it's bad, you kn? >> reporr:olice webout to finout extly killed tarazgal-- a dcover that iwaleat wen y beyo way beyo theuiet suburb. >>> coming up. manyynthetic drugs are paag to seem completel but -- >>hey're not rulated not safe. wt y this uf nter winter can be tough on our bodies. 90 days jugglinghectic schedules 40 heavy cfo meals. no wonder oudigeste systems can act up. joying activia twice a dayfor o weeks mahelp ruce the fruey of

generic drugs to come inches generic drugs of course are those drugs that are allowed to come into the market after a drug manufacturer patent expires over a period of time. generic drugs have to have fda approval, also these copies, but they do not have default have full clinical trials. so a lot of the expenses avoided. as a result, more to generic drugs on the market create competition and lower prices for consumers. over the last 30 years we have seen 88% of prescription drugs purchased in the united states are generic drugs, 30 years ago that number was zero. however, in 2012, 26 years after the first law passed it became clear that the drug approval program needed an overhaul. more generic needed an overhaul. more generic drugs are coming from overseas, companies in china and this put patients at risk and companies at a disadvantage. there is a a backlog of 4700 applications waiting to be reviewed of the approval time of the generic drug was 30 months. that surpasses the 180 days that was laid out in the hatch, waxman amendment in 1984. and additionally in 2012, mayor and the gen