Washington Post Examines Drug Industry Health Care Efforts
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Thursday is launching a multi-million dollar advertising campaign -- along with consumer and labor groups and health care providers -- promoting health coverage for all U.S. residents as the industry aims to "burnish its image and align itself rhetorically with the health reform goals of President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress," the Washington Post reports.
Billy Tauzin, the head of PhRMA, said, "PhRMA had been isolated into a one-party camp," adding, "We're trying to reposition as less of a partisan player." According to the Center for Responsive Politics, for the first time since 1990, political contributions to Democrats in 2008 were comparable to contributions to Republicans. The Post reports that such "maneuvering comes at a time of great stress for America's drugmakers." The industry is expected to grow by less than 2% in 2009 compared with double-digit growth rates throughout many of the last 18 years, according to IMS Health.
Many in the pharmaceutical industry also are concerned that a Democratic administration and Democratic-controlled Congress will "add muscle" to FDA and push for an overhaul of the U.S. health care system, the Post reports. "Some individual companies are moving independently, suggesting strains in the once-unified drug lobby," according to the Post. For example, Merck last month announced that it was joining a coalition that supports comprehensive health reform, including measures that would compare the efficacy and price of medications. Kenneth Frazier, president of Merck's Global Human Health unit, said, "We understand clearly that we are entering this debate at a time when the pharmaceutical industry's standing is low," adding, "We face a choice of acting from a place of fear of the potential harms that could occur to us in reform or acting on the hope of what reform could mean to our industry."
In addition, many drug companies in 2009 will submit to voluntary marketing restrictions and bans on gifts to physicians "in an attempt to pre-empt stricter regulations that lawmakers in both parties are pursuing," the Post reports. Tauzin said, "We had better self-police and stop doing the things that cause so much criticism, or we're going to get legislated and regulated by government."
Patient advocacy groups say that the voluntary restrictions on gifts and payments will do little to change the relationship between drug manufacturers and physicians. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has pushed for legislation that would require drugmakers to report all gifts and payments made to physicians, said that voluntary restrictions are "a start, not an end," adding, "You can't say it's a substitute for what I'm trying to do." Grassley said, "People are less apt to violate a federal law than a code of ethics of its own profession" (Connolly, Washington Post, 1/8).
