PhRMA - doing the business in Washington

From The Lexington Herald-Leader :

The pharmaceutical industry needed a friendly senator in 1999, and it was willing to talk money.

Senate Democrats were pushing universal prescription drug coverage for senior citizens -- including a provision to let Medicare negotiate for cheaper prices. Drug companies wanted to stop them.

Barry Caldwell, lobbyist at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association (PhRMA), sent his boss a memo explaining that they would sit down with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. McConnell had the ear of other GOP senators as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), their fund-raising machine, Caldwell said.

Caldwell listed four objectives for their Feb. 9, 1999, meeting with McConnell.

'Personal introduction of you to him,' Caldwell wrote to Alan Holmer, the head of PhRMA in Washington.

'Apprising him of industry's concern with attention on pharmaceutical costs and efforts by Democrats to demagogue the issue at Republican expense,' he wrote. 'Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) prepared to force Republicans to choose between a tax cut for the rich and a drug benefit for seniors.'

'Soliciting the senator's views on issue.'

'And,' he concluded, 'expressing PhRMA's willingness to be a resource, substantially and politically, to assist in maintaining a Republican majority in 2000.'

Caldwell referred to campaign money. To refresh his boss's memory, he attached a list of the pharmaceutical industry's Republican Party donations during the 1998 elections.

'Industry has been a solid supporter,' he noted.

PhRMA found a sympathetic reception.

When the Democratic drug plan came up for a vote in 2000, McConnell and other Republican senators defeated it, 53 to 44.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry dug deep and gave the NRSC $3.3 million for the 2000 elections, twice what it gave the Senate Democrats' committee, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. PhRMA alone gave the NRSC $125,250, three times what it gave the NRSC in 1998.

McConnell was duly credited by colleagues for his fund-raising.

McConnell recently said he could not recall the PhRMA meeting in 1999, but he assumed it was held 'over at NRSC offices, where you do talk about support for issues or causes.' In fact, it was held in McConnell's Senate office, according to the memo.

Generally, McConnell said, he agreed with the pharmaceutical industry's positions and understood its interest in the vote.

'It's not surprising they would want to be active politically, because the government, which spends $3 trillion a year, was about to do something that had a big impact on their future,' he said.

In a recent interview, Caldwell said his group did not offer to buy votes. Asked about his memo that linked money to legislation, Caldwell said PhRMA just wanted McConnell to know it appreciated his friendship.

'We wanted him to know that if he had any doubts about our commitment, he shouldn't,' Caldwell said. 'If we were trying to buy a favor, we failed miserably. That was never our intent. We know you can't do that.'

You can, and they did, countered Dave Lemmon, spokesman for Families USA, a non-profit group in Washington that advocates affordable health care.

In 2003, Lemmon said, when Republicans passed their own Medicare drug bill, it met the pharmaceutical industry's wishes. There were no price controls. Although other federal agencies are expected to negotiate for cheaper drug prices, the 2003 law forbids Medicare from doing so.

As Senate majority whip, McConnell joined other Senate Republican leaders who 'fought tooth-and-nail, along with PhRMA' to block last-minute efforts to allow price controls, Lemmon said.

'PhRMA was the winner all the way around,' he said. 'Millions of additional people will be getting their drugs, with the United States government paying some of the highest prices in the world.'