Drug business prescribes a novel cure for its ills

[Guest guest]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/356296p-303697c.html

 

Drug business prescribes a novel cure for its ills

 

 

Who knew that the multibillion-dollar U.S. pharmaceutical industry was

so keen on publishing pulp fiction?

 

In a tale worthy of a zany Washington satire - except for the

lamentable fact that it's true - the rich and powerful pharmaceutical

lobby secretly commissioned a thriller novel whose aim was to scare

the living daylights out of folks who might want to buy cheap drugs

from Canada.

 

When the project fell through in July, I'm told the drug lobby offered

$100,000 to the co-authors and publisher in a vain effort to sweep it

under the rug.

 

Talk about thinking outside the box!

 

" This is the most outrageous example of deception and duplicity on the

part of a Washington lobby in the history of the country, " said

Capitol Hill denizen Jeff Weaver, chief of staff to Rep. Bernie

Sanders (I-Vt.), a diehard foe of the pharmaceutical industry.

 

Drug-lobby mouthpiece Ken Johnson, executive vice president of the

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, acknowledged the

hare-brained scheme but shifted blame.

 

" We did not commission a book, " Johnson argued. " The idea was brought

to us by an outside consultant. We explored it, provided some

background information ... but in the final analysis, decided it

wasn't the right thing for us to do. "

 

I'm told that Mark Barondess, a well-known divorce lawyer in

Washington, D.C., was the so-called outside consultant and approached

L.A.-based Phoenix Books with the novel idea.

 

Phoenix honcho Michael Viner, who happens to be Barondess' publisher,

struck a six-figure deal. I'm told PhRMA made at least one payment to

Phoenix.

 

Viner declined comment, and Barondess didn't respond to my detailed

message.

 

Work began in April, after Viner hired veteran ghostwriter Julie

Chrystyn. Her story concerned a Croatian terrorist cell that uses

Canadian Web sites to murder millions of unwitting Americans looking

for cut-rate pharmaceuticals.

 

PhRMA has vigorously fought all efforts to legalize the purchase of

cheap drugs from Canada. Even though the lobby has found some success,

the underground business still takes an estimated $1 billion in annual

profits from American drug behemoths.

 

Chrystyn titled her thriller-in-progress " The Spivak Conspiracy, " an

homage to her friend Kenin Spivak, an L.A. telecomm entrepreneur and

onetime Hollywood exec.

 

Spivak said he became Chrystyn's co-writer after she delivered the

first 50 pages, and PhRMA made several editorial suggestions.

 

" They said they wanted it somewhat dumbed down for women, with a lot

more fluff in it, and more about the wife of the head Croatian

terrorist, who is a former Miss Mexico, " Spivak told me.

 

Apparently, women are among the most loyal buyers of Canadian drugs.

 

" They also wanted to change the motivating factor of the terrorists to

greed, because they didn't want it to be politics, " Spivak said. " They

wanted lots of people to die. "

 

Spivak told me that since PhRMA pulled out - and he and his colleagues

rejected the lobby's offer of $100,000 to kill the project - he and

Chrystyn have finished a revised version, " The Karasik Conspiracy, "

due early next year.