[Pharm-policy] OUCH! (#53--Drug Industry Monopolists)

[James Love]

Subject: OUCH! (#53--Drug Industry Monopolists)
   Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 14:59:15 -0400
   From: Micah Sifry <msifry@publicampaign.org>

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    OUCH! A Regular Bulletin on How Money in Politics Hurts You

 #53                                  Public
Campaign                      July 6, 2000
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THE REAL DRUG CZARS
Americans pay up to twice as much for the same drugs sold in other
countries, including Canada.  Fourteen million seniors have no drug
coverage, and millions more have lousy coverage. Meanwhile, according to
Public Citizen, the drug industry is on pace to spend nearly $14 million
every election and another $150 million every two years lobbying
Congress to protect its incredibly high profit rate, which is three
times that of all other industries.

So if we want greater access to more affordable drugs, we?re also going
to have to change the way campaigns are financed. Here?s one fresh,
bipartisan, example of the problem. A few weeks ago, an unknown member
of the Senate quietly placed a provision seeking to extend
Schering-Plough?s monopoly patent on the anti-allergy drug Claritin into
a Military Construction Appropriations bill. Sales of Claritin hit $2.7
billion in 1999. But this lucrative haul is due to end in 2002, when
Schering-Plough?s patent is due to expire. Hence the company?s extensive
efforts to buy itself a pass from Congress.

Schering-Plough?s PAC and top executives have already contributed
significantly more money to federal candidates and parties in the
current election cycle than they did in all of 1997-98, $617,000 to
$492,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Nearly
three-quarters goes to Republicans. The company has also more than
doubled its lobbying expenditures from 1998 to 1999, according to its
disclosure reports.

A lot is at stake, and not just for Schering-Plough?s profit margin.
Generic drug manufacturers expect to be able to sell Claritin for 80
percent less than Schering-Plough. At more than a dollar a pill this is
nothing to sneeze at.

Good-old-fashioned sleuthing by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call
eventually discovered the author of the mysterious patent extension
provision: Senate Judiciary chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Hatch towers above
all other members of the Senate as a friend of the pharmaceutical and
biotech industries. According to a new study just released by Public
Citizen, he has received $26.4 million in PAC and individual
contributions from these companies since 1993, almost one-quarter of the
total received by the whole Senate! For the last six years,
Schering-Plough ranks as his 7th biggest individual contributor,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But it?s important to note that the Claritin monopolists have friends on
both sides of the aisle. Last year, Senator Robert Torricelli (D-NJ)
introduced legislation that would have extended patents for several
drug-makers, including Schering-Plough. The Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee, which Torricelli chairs, received a $50,000 check
from Schering-Plough just days afterward. Since 1995, the company has
been Torricelli?s 3rd biggest individual contributor, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics.
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OUCH! is a regular e-mail bulletin on how private money in politics
hurts average citizens, published by Public Campaign, a non-partisan,
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Every day, we pay more as consumers and taxpayers for special interest
subsidies and boondoggles because of our system of privately financed
elections. It's time for a change. Help spread the word! Send copies of
this message to your friends and join the growing movement for real
campaign finance reform.

Want more info about Public Campaign? Visit www.publicampaign.org or
write to info@publicampaign.org. You can also help support our work by
making a credit card contribution on our website.

This bulletin may be reposted to newsgroups as long as it is printed in
its entirety.



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James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
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