WAXMAN TAKING ON THE $80 BILLION "DEAL"

The Waxman Cometh


The New York Times reports today on Henry Waxman's plan to challenge the apparent "deal" between pharma and the administration in which pharma would give up $80 B in exchange for DTC'ing in favor of healthcare reform, not having to negotiate Medicare pricing further, and supporting some version of reform in general.

The article includes an interesting array of responses from pols, analysts, conservative think tankers, industry folks, et. al. As already noted here, Billy Tauzin says a Waxman-like move would be a "deal breaker." I have personally speculated that such a result would not be entirely unwelcome by the industry at this juncture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/health/policy/26dual.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

PhRMA CHIEF BILLY TAUZIN PROMISES $80 BILLION IN PROTECTION MONEY

The Wall Street Journal, in its opinion article - Billy and the Beanstalk reports that the PhRMA president Billy Tauzin -

"...ostentatiously blabbed to the media that his industry's deal to help fund Obama Care with $80 billion in prescription-drug discounts was really protection money. In particular, he bragged that he had secured promises from the White House that President Obama would fend off Congressional Democrats who want to "negotiate" drug prices, which in practice means price controls."

The article claims that these mutual "promises" may be somewhat hollow from both party's perspective. None the less it seems like a rather slimy statement to make at a time the pharmaceutical industry is looking for as much traction as possible for their political and business concerns.





You may remember that the July 15/08 Wall Street Journal Health Blog - Note to Pharma: ‘Your House Is On Fire, and You’re Still Smoking in Bed’ noted Mr. Tauzin's sermon on pharmaceutical morality. At the time he admonished the industry that their reputation was going up in smoke and -

“It’s an accumulation of things some companies did over the years, now it’s death by a thousand cuts.” He told drugmakers, “We gotta stop the bleeding.”

Maybe Billy needs to put the razor blade down now.