Big Pharma & Congress "trips" - money well spent?

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Members of Congress and their staffs took at least 48 trips worth $84,000 paid for individually by the top five drug companies between Jan. 1, 2000, and June 30, 2005, with GSK leading the list.

But all five drug companies co-sponsored a number of trips with other groups.

By organizing the trips, drug companies can help lawmakers and their staffs take "the mystery out of complicated technology and specialized research," Ken Johnson, vice president of communications at Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said in a statement.

But consumer groups and government watchdogs feel otherwise, believing it gives corporate officials access to lawmakers that ordinary voters can't get.

"They're designed to give company lobbyists time with congressional staff and cement relationships," said Allison Allina of the National Women's Health Network.

GlaxoSmithKline, the second highest-grossing pharmaceutical company, sponsored 16 congressional staffers on a visit to its facility in Rixensart, Belgium. The company does its vaccine research, development and production in the small town outside of Brussels. The five-day visits in 2000 and 2002 cost a total of about $39,000.

Travel expenses alone were more than $23,000.

Mary Ann Rhyne, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said the trips were in compliance with House and Senate rules and designed to show lawmakers how the company could respond in the case of an avian flu pandemic.

"There had been some concerns with how quickly pharmaceutical makers could ramp up the productions of vaccines," Rhyne said.

GlaxoSmithKline also has co-sponsored at least 30 congressional trips -- some to exotic locations -- at a cost of at least $54,000.

In 2004, the company was one of a group of sponsors that flew three lawmakers and one staff member to Brazil to focus on expanding opportunities for African-American-owned businesses.

The trips -- taken by Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo, Rep. Caroly Kilpatrick, D-Mich., Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and one of her aides -- cost more than $32,000.

A year earlier, GlaxoSmithKline was one of several sponsors, including drug companies Eli Lilly and Pfizer, that sponsored a trip taken by Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Tex., to Puerto Rico. The companies spent at least $5,700, to send Ortiz to a retreat designed to improve relations between the congressional minority caucuses.

Rhyne said Glaxo did not directly pay for the trips to Brazil and Puerto Rico. Instead, she said, the company paid membership dues to an organization that sponsored the Brazil trips and made donations to the organization sponsoring the retreat.

Glaxo and other top pharmaceutical companies have also sponsored trips taken by the offices of lawmakers involved in the negotiations of the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Act. The legislation did not impose price controls on pharmaceutical companies, creating a potential windfall of millions of dollars.

Pfizer sponsored at least six trips for former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., at more than $11,500. In November 2003, Breaux took a trip on Pfizer's tab just days before he participated in Medicare negotiations.

In 2002, Pfizer was one of a group of co-sponsors that paid for an aide to former Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., to visit Turkey to "gain insight into the U.S.-Turkish relations" in several industries, including pharmaceuticals.

In 2002, Glaxo sponsored a trip taken by a Tauzin staffer to the company's Brussels facility costing at least $2,800. Rhyne said Glaxo sponsored the trip because Tauzin's aide was majority counsel for the committee that dealt with health and vaccine issues.

Tauzin was a key negotiator of the Medicare law, and now is head of PhRMA. Tauzin has denied any conflicts of interest while he negotiated the legislation.

And Tauzin is not the only member or staffer to take trips sponsored by drug companies and later find industry employment.

In 2001, PhRMA sponsored a trip costing at least $3,100 taken by former Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa. Greenwood was a member of House Energy and Commerce Committee, which regulates drug companies. He also has sponsored several bills related to the industry.

In 2005, Greenwood became president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, an industry trade group.

In 2000, Merck sponsored a $1,600 trip to its Tampa facility taken by Dave Larson, who was a health policy adviser at the time to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the main sponsor of the Medicare bill. Larson was later hired by PhRMA.

Massie Ritsch, of the Center for Responsive Politics, said the trips provide lawmakers with only one point of view.

"They are held captive by the sponsors," Ritsch said. "These are fact-finding missions, but [lawmakers] are only getting certain facts."

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