[Ip-health] Center for Public Integrity: pushing for drugs (report)

[Manon Ress]

A Record Year for the Pharmaceutical Lobby in '07
Washington's largest lobby racks up another banner year on Capitol Hill

By M. Asif Ismail
Data analysis by Helena Bengtsson

Washington, June 24, 2008 =96 Washington's largest lobby, the
pharmaceutical industry, racked up another banner year on Capitol Hill
in 2007, backed by a record $168 million lobbying effort, according to
a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal lobbying data. Among
the industry's successes: getting two controversial laws extended and
thwarting congressional efforts to restrict media ads for prescription
drugs.

The spending represents a 32 percent jump over 2006. Driven in part by
a busy legislative calendar dominated by issues critical to the
industry, the effort raised the amount spent by drug interests on
federal lobbying in the past decade to more than $1 billion.
Pharmaceutical, medical device, and other health product
manufacturers, together, spent more than $189 million on lobbying last
year, another record and nearly three times the $67 million they spent
in 1998, the first full year for which complete records and totals are
available.

More than 90 percent of the total was spent by 40 companies and three
trade groups: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
(PhRMA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Advanced
Medical Technology Association.

More at:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=3D985


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Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673