[Pharm-policy] `Senator Anonymous' Revealed in Claritin patent extension proposal

[James Love]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/mysterysenator000624.html
 
`Senator Anonymous' Revealed 
Mystery Legislator Comes Clean 

Senator Orrin Hatch is the author of a proposal
that would have meant millions for a leading
pharmaceutical company. 
                                                           
   By Jackie Judd and Carter M. Yang

W A S H I N G T O N, June 24 - "Senator Anonymous" is
anonymous no more. 
                    
Politicians thrive on attention. But when a proposal that would have
meant millions or a leading pharmaceutical company surfaced on Capitol
Hill, no one wanted to claim credit for it. In fact, copies of the
controversial legislation were circulated around the Senate without any
member's name attached to it. 

   [snip]

    After ABCNEWS reported on an earlier effort to attach the provision
to totally unrelated legislation about military construction, a seniors
advocacy group - saying the bill would artificially inflate the price
consumers pay for the popular allergy drug Claritin - offered a $1,000
reward to  anyone who could prove the identity of the mystery
legislator.  And with that, the guessing game had begun. 

   [snip]


      `Stealth Senator' Unmasked 
Then suddenly, "Senator Anonymous," citing repeated media inquiries,
revealed himself. 

     "Clearly, this is a tempest in a teaspoon," said Utah Sen. Orrin
Hatch, chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, in a written
statement released late Friday. The influential Republican blamed the
controversy on a simple staff snafu.

     "I have consulted my staff," he explained, "and learned today that
Judiciary Committee staff - knowing of my interest in this area, but
without my instruction or knowledge  - had sent a preliminary draft of
language to legislative counsel [the Senate's in-house lawyers] several
weeks ago with my name on it."

    "Since I have now identified the non-anonymous, so called `anonymous
senator,'" Hatch joked, "I think that the Seniors Coalition should give
me the $1,000 reward which, of course, I will readily turn over to a
charity of my choice." 

   [snip]

-- 
=======================================================
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
=======================================================