http://www.gooznews.com/node/3045

Big Pharma's Faustian Bargain
by GoozNews ~ 12 Aug 2009 07:39am
The following appeared this morning on the Huffington Post:

.

In exchange for a $150 million advertising campaign...drug industry lobbyists have quietly been handed almost everything they wanted out of health care reform legislation... the legislation:



Will not allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, a core Democratic demand promised BY candidate Barack Obama;
Will not contain even a mildly restrictive drug formulary, where Medicare establishes a "don't buy" list of drugs where there clearly are cheaper and equally effective alternatives;

Will give Big Pharma and other provider interests a seat at the table when comparative effective research priorities get established, ensuring that medical arenas with huge potential for cost savings go unaddressed;
and
Will give biotech firms at least 12 ½ years of market exclusivity for their drugs before biogenerics are allowed to enter the market, extending their high-price marketing period beyond patent expiration if necessary. ..


...Before 2006, Democrats received just a third of Big Pharma's campaign contributions. Now they get well over half. Drug firms also recruited a new cadre of K Street lobbyists. The new firms that won their businesses included on the rosters former top aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means chairman Charles Rangel, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus and Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions chair Ted Kennedy...