[SSRI-Research] Government Under the Influence - Dr. Kate Scannell

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JustSayNo

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:37:11 -0400

[sSRI-Research] Government Under the Influence - Dr. Kate Scannell

 

Dr. Kate Scannell, who works for Permanente, just released a statement in

support of Elliot Spitzer's class action suit against Glaxo. Here's more from

Dr. Scannell.

 

 

 

http://www.healthoc.com/newsletter/03Q3/page3.html

 

Government Under the Influence

By Kate Scannell, M.D.

 

According to confidential documents recently acquired and reviewed by the New

York Times, the U.S. drug company trade association PhRMA (Pharmaceutical

Research and Manufacturers of America) intends to spend $150 million in the

current year in hopes of influencing our domestic and foreign policy makers. The

Times reports that PhRMA's budget for such lobbying activities during the fiscal

year beginning July 1 represents a 23 percent increase over the prior year.

 

The plan includes a $72.7 million allocation for lobbying at the federal level,

$49.7 million for state lobbying efforts, and $4.9 million to lobby the Food and

Drug Administration.

 

PhARMA's purported goals are far-reaching and ambitious, ranging from attempts

to fight a ballot initiative in Ohio that would lower drug costs for uninsured

residents, to a $1 million campaign to change the Canadian health care system,

which controls drug pricing. It also earmarks $450,000 to quash the ability of

U.S. citizens to purchase more affordable drugs from Canada, and $550,000 for

media placement of articles that favor the drug industry's agendas.

 

Distinct from the additional billions it annually spends on marketing efforts to

influence doctors and patients through detailing, direct mailings, telemarketing

and advertisements, the millions of dollars the industry specifically allocates

for influence-peddling in government circles speaks to a particularly disturbing

factor in our democratic political process.

 

According to a Public Citizen report, 342 of the 675 lobbyists hired by the

pharmaceutical industry in 2002 had ties to the federal government and 26 of

them were former members of Congress. Expensive lobbying efforts seem to pay

off. Certainly, the drug industry has succeeded in winning many legislative

battles that have included tax breaks, patent extensions, Medicare drug benefit

policy, and overall control on drug pricing and profit protections.

 

In fact, another study just released by Public Citizen says that the ten

pharmaceutical companies listed in the Fortune 500 reaped $35.9 billion in

profits in 2002. By comparison, profits for the composite Fortune 500

simultaneously fell by 66.3 percent, and the drug companies' profits were more

than five times greater than the median profit for all Fortune 500 industries.

 

I am troubled by these new reports about the pharmaceutical industry's expanding

lobbying efforts. As more and more of my patients and friends struggle to afford

their expensive medications, I am disheartened to think that some of the cost

they must suffer will be used to fund the drug industry's political lobby

against their own best interests in securing more affordable, lower-cost

pharmaceuticals.

 

And as the pharmaceutical industry uniquely reaps its bedazzling profits, I

wonder about the price we are all paying as citizens of this democracy. I'm

hoping for a modern-day Mr. Smith, who will go to Washington to insist on the

primacy of citizen representation in drug and health care policy making. I'm

imagining new and necessary conditions for a modern meaning of American freedom

and independence