Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14914

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Rubenstein S.
Drug Industry Hustles to Blunt Democratic Strikes
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2009 Jan 8
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/01/08/drug-industry-hustles-to-blunt-democratic-strikes/

Full text:

The pharmaceutical industry, long known as a Republican stronghold, is warming up to Democrats now that they’ve won the presidency and consolidated power in Congress.

The industry already boosted its campaign contributions to Democrats in 2008. And today, the first spot in an ad campaign promoting health coverage for all Americans will be unveiled, the Washington Post reports. The drug industry plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on the campaign, which is also sponsored by consumer and labor groups, according tothe WaPo.

The industry’s trade group has also moved to preempt regulatory efforts by voluntarily banning pens, coffee mugs and other logo-laden trinkets that drugmakers have lavished on doctors, and by creating guidelines around direct-to-consumer marketing.

Meanwhile, some companies are taking their own steps, even if the whole industry isn’t going along. For instance, WaPo notes that Merck said recently it’s joining a coalition supporting health reform, including something that hasn’t been the industry’s favorite idea: comparing the price and performance of drugs.

Will the efforts be enough to keep Rep. Henry Waxman and Sen. Charles Grassley at bay? Waxman (D., Calif.) supports giving the FDA power to ban DTC marketing on some drugs in their first two years on market; Grassley (R., Iowa) has been pushing for greater disclosure of industry payments to doctors – a call companies including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly are now moving toward themselves.

The industry’s voluntary efforts are “a start, not an end,” Grassley told WaPo. “You can’t say it’s a substitute for what I’m trying to do.”