Podesta.com

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Washington, DC as a small town:  podesta.com

John Podesta is the Chief of Staff for the President of the United
States.  He and his brother once ran Podesta and Associates together.
Today it is run by his brother, Anthony Podesta, and renamed
podesta.com  According to lobbying disclosure reports, Podesta.com
represents PhRMA, the US trade association that represents the 
large pharmacuetical companies, as well as individual firms 
like Genentech an Genzyme (the firm that sells Ceredase, 
a US NIH invention, for as much as $.5 million for one year
of treatment).  They also represent Serono Laboratories,
3M Pharmaceuticals and Friends of Cancer Research. 

According to 1997 lobbying disclosure reports, Podesta 
have ten lobbyist working on the Genentech Account, and
six on Genzyme account and 11 persons working on the PhRMA
account.  

To illustrate what a small town this is, consider that
the VP for government relations at Genentech who hired
Podesta was David Beier.  Last April David Beier was 
hired by Vice President Gore to be his chief domestic
policy advisory.  

Here are a few items from the Podesta.com web site:



http://www.podesta.com/newsletter1522/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=5665

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

When the time came for the
emerging biotechnology industry to
make its debut in Washington,
podesta.com assisted with the
introductions. We provided two
young companies with access to
key policy-makers and legislative
intelligence, while at the same time
educating officials in the White
House, Congress and the Food and
Drug Administration about their
limitless potential.

Today, we are the longest-tenured
Washington representatives of two leading biotechnology companies,
Genentech and Genzyme. For Genentech, we have recruited congressional
allies for legislation to streamline the federal drug approval process,
gained the ear of the White House on extending the R&D tax credit, and 
helped to persuade the House to reform U.S. patent law. We continue to 
help  the company resolve intellectual property disputes in Europe and 
Japan.  For Genzyme, we recently helped convince Congress to make 
permanent  the tax credit for "orphan drugs"- drugs that are developed 
to treat diseases that afflict small patient populations.

Podesta.com also represents all the major players in the drug and
biotech industries through our work with the Pharmaceutical Research 
and Manufacturers of America, one of Washington's premier trade
associations. Brought into the PhRMA team to help win enactment of 
FDA reform and extension of the drug user fee act, we have since 
assisted theassociation on a range of issues from a trade dispute with 
the European Union to legislation to ban human cloning.

Today biomedical industries are powerhouses driving the new global
economy, and we have dealt with their complicated technologies on a
range of regulatory and legislative issues.

In fact, we worked with all the significant players in the biomedical
world- pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical device manufacturers
- on legislation moving the Food and Drug Administration into modern 
times. podesta.com played a major role in winning enactment of the 
myriad regulatory reforms that ultimately brought the FDA up to 
speed with these booming industries.


http://www.podesta.com/newsletter1522/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=5662

BUILDING COALITIONS OF COMPETITORS

We often deliver results to our
clients by uniting disparate or
competing interests- such as the
entire U.S. cancer research
community or the entertainment
industry- into surprising yet potent
coalitions to fulfill common
agendas on highly publicized
issues. 

  [snip]

In the case of Friends of Cancer Research, podesta.com continues to help
them score important victories. With the support of major pharmaceutical
companies, this coalition of leading- but often competing- cancer
organizations joined forces for the first time as we launched a plan to
stir up
a public and government outcry for increased cancer research funding. 

We linked the cancer research community with influential leaders of the
entertainment industry, then convened a series of regional public events
promoting the progress and need for cancer research. We also linked key
Members of Congress with major cancer centers in their states and, in
Washington, fueled media coverage of special Senate hearings on cancer
research by arranging for celebrity cancer survivors to testify. 

Our efforts, together with the work of the nation's large cancer
advocacy
community, ignited a bidding war between the Administration and
Congressional Democrats and Republicans over who could push for the
largest hike in federal funding for cancer research. This unprecedented
collaboration ultimately produced firm bipartisan support for the
sizable
funding increase passed in 1998. 


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org