Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13907

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Publication type: news

Center for Public Integrity: Drug Industry Spent Record Amount Lobbying in '07 Over a Billion Dollars Spent in the Last 10 Years
PharmaLive 2008 Jun 24
http://pharmalive.com/news/index.cfm?articleID=551576&categoryid=43&newsletter=1

Full text:

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and their trade groups racked up another banner year on Capitol Hill, spending a record $168 million on lobbying in 2007, a 32 percent jump over 2006, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis. Based on data obtained from the Senate Office of Public Records, the pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $1 billion lobbying the federal government over the past decade.

“As the biggest lobby on the Hill, the pharmaceutical industry wields tremendous influence that impacts everything from prescriptions to patents,” said Center Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. “The central point is that their massive spending has been highly successful, largely producing the political results the drug industry wants.”

The top issues lobbied in 2007 include blocking the importation of drugs, extending pharmaceutical patents, obtaining greater access of U.S. drugs in international free trade agreements, and preventing Congress from limiting direct-to-consumer ads. More than 90 percent of the spending on lobbying was by 40 drug companies and three trade groups – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Advanced Medical Technology Association.

PhRMA led the drug industry trade groups in lobbying with close to $23 million spent in 2007, a 26 percent rise from 2006. Among the drug companies, Amgen Inc. took the top spot with $16.2 million, followed by Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, at $13.8 million. Other big drug company spenders included Roche Holding AG ($9 million), Sanofi-aventis ($8.4 million), GlaxoSmithKline ($8.2 million), and Johnson & Johnson Inc. ($7.7 million).

The political shift in Congress from Republican to Democratic control helped drive the drug industry’s record lobbying spending in 2007. After the Democratic sweep of the House of Representatives, several long-standing critics of the industry, such as Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, assumed leadership roles of powerful committees that pushed for greater oversight of the industry by conducting a series of hearings on issues such as drug safety, pharmaceutical pricing, and availability of generic medicines.

Congress also attempted to give the Food and Drug Administration more regulatory power over the industry and attempted to revisit the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act – a 2003 law that resulted in the largest overhaul of Medicare in its history.