[olsen]

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...

[paula_w]

I guess it's a good thing that I didn't read this before my post....I wondered what they had purchased. Boy this admin doesn't even attempt to hide it; are they secretly Republican?

p

[lou_lou]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx_2cuPgQQ

20/20 healthcare in America 2007 - John Stossel
John Stossel - Sick in America - Part 1 (of 6)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEXFUbSbg1I

[jcitron]

It's time to find out who received the big contributions and publish their names and amounts on every news source that'll allow it. We can count out Fox Noise and the Controlled News Network though.

The problem is the news would rather report on some actress being in a detox center while receiving brest implants that the same time that report the real news. The big pharma issuse is real news.

The thing is, the government doesn't want this published because if word got out, it would cause a revolution!

As far as I'm concerned all of congress is on the take and it's time to clean house.

John

[olsen]

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

Tue, 08/18/2009 - 08:11 — mgoozner
One clarification to this article. The House bill (H.R. 3200) does not give the drug industry a seat on the commission that will oversee comparative effectiveness research priorities. It is only Senate legislation proposed by Max Baucus that contains such language. So this "win" for Big Pharma is still not a done deal.

Oh geez, he's a democrat (Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.) I have not researched the amt of $$ he has received from big pharma, nor who his former "top aide" is who now works for Big Pharma. madelyn

[chasmo]

yet another great reason to go slowly in increments. this idea of chucking our system and replacing it with a system we can't pay for is lunacy.

Charlie

Originally Posted by olsen

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

Tue, 08/18/2009 - 08:11 — mgoozner
One clarification to this article. The House bill (H.R. 3200) does not give the drug industry a seat on the commission that will oversee comparative effectiveness research priorities. It is only Senate legislation proposed by Max Baucus that contains such language. So this "win" for Big Pharma is still not a done deal.

Oh geez, he's a democrat (Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.) I have not researched the amt of $$ he has received from big pharma, nor who his former "top aide" is who now works for Big Pharma. madelyn