Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1042

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Calmes J.
PhRMA Fights Petition to Force State to Act
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 2003 Apr 9

Full text:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When some Buckeye State activists began a campaign to win a state law for lower prescription-drug prices, they anticipated a battle in the statehouse here.

But the drug-industry lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, had another war plan, one that would keep the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs from even reaching the Georgian-style Capitol. For months, the coalition has been stuck in county courthouses and boards of elections all over the state, as PhRMA contests the signatures on its petition to force the issue before Ohio’s lawmakers or, failing there, the voters.

PhRMA’s hardball tactics are becoming familiar in states nationwide. As consumer groups despair of President Bush and Congress ever coming to some national agreement on holding down spiraling drug costs, more than half the states either have or are weighing remedies of their own. And the drug-industry lobby is battling back.

“If the pharmaceutical companies would put their money into affordable drugs instead of fighting us, there wouldn’t be a fight,” snaps coalition Chairman Athena Godet-Calogeras of Cleveland. Her co-chairman is state AFL-CIO President William Burga, and members include labor, seniors, churches, teachers and health-care groups.

The coalition’s proposal would have Ohio make bulk purchases at lower prices negotiated with drug companies, so an estimated 2.2 million uninsured could buy drugs more cheaply. It is modeled on a Maine law that PhRMA is challenging at the U.S. Supreme Court. So far the industry group has won most skirmishes, but at some cost. Among those enraged by its tactics is Cuyahoga County elections-board member Bob Bennett, who moonlights as Ohio Republican Party chairman.

He describes the Cleveland board’s January hearing on the coalition petition, and the hours spent reviewing computer and handwriting analyses of signatures, in David-versus-Goliath terms. “These are volunteers mostly, and if you look at the total signatures, under any circumstances there would have been more than enough.” But, he adds, the companies “were trying to nit-pick to the Nth degree. … They had to be spending more than a million dollars in Ohio.

“The arrogance of these companies,” he continues. “If I were in elective office right now, I’d have a little trouble supporting them.”

But those in elective office mostly do support the industry. And Mr. Bennett’s party controls both Ohio’s governorship and, by 2-to-1 margins, its Senate and House. As in other states and nationally, PhRMA and its members are major political donors, favoring Republicans.

The coalition resorted to Ohio’s complex petition process only because the legislature wouldn’t act. By law, voters who gather enough signatures of registered voters, both statewide and in half of Ohio’s 88 counties, can get a proposal before the legislature. If, after four months, lawmakers ignore or reject the proposal, petitioners can gather new signatures to put the issue to voters on the next general-election ballot.

Last September, the coalition gave Ohio’s attorney general an initial petition of 100 signatures, to get approval for the main petition drive. PhRMA objected, and its attorney subpoenaed people who had signed the petition. When they complained to a newspaper, the attorney said maybe they had something to hide, and warned vaguely of felony charges for filing false information.

But the coalition’s request was approved. By December, it had gathered some 143,000 signatures, more than the roughly 97,000 required statewide. As state law also requires, the total included a certain percentage of signers from each of 44 counties. The secretary of state gave each county the signatures of its residents, for verification.

PhRMA filed protests in 41 counties, most under the name of Keith Brooks — PhRMA’s longtime lobbyist here. (Protesters must be registered voters, not groups.) In a phone message, he referred questions to a PhRMA public-relations consultant, Jenny Camper, who says the proposed law would amount to price controls. Since company profits go toward research and development of new products, she says, such a law “would arrest the development of these drugs.” Ms. Camper also notes that PhRMA is in talks with Gov. Robert Taft on implementing his proposed “Golden Buckeye” discount-card program, under which drug firms would offer savings to seniors.

But in January, Mr. Taft publicly blasted the industry for foot-dragging, and threatened to join the coalition. Though talks resumed, Mr. Taft’s executive assistant for health and human services, Greg Moody, says he can’t predict the outcome. “We keep saying we’re two weeks away,” he says. “I was saying that in December.”

The legal record here in Franklin County is a window on skirmishes elsewhere. PhRMA’s objections to individual signatures include: Some people printed instead of using cursive, didn’t give the date or wrote their birthday instead, omitted their city, or signed for their spouses, too. Volunteers gathered many names, but the coalition also used paid help. PhRMA objects that many circulators misstated their compensation — writing “$1-$1.25,” without specifying per signature, hour or what — and gave a false address for their employer, writing his temporary Red Roof Inn location instead of his out-of-state residence. All signatures gathered by those circulators should be stricken, PhRMA argues.

Attorney Donald McTigue, who represents petitioners, mostly at organized labor’s expense, says the issue could reach the U.S. Supreme Court, given his side’s argument that the information requirements under the Ohio law violate the First Amendment. Or it could end up on the 2004 ballot, when Mr. Bush and U.S. Sen. George Voinovich — both Republicans — face re-election.