Ad Age reports:
It's looking likely that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America wasted up to $100 million in advertising to promote a health-care-reform bill that will ultimately offer the industry no protection.
Some pharmaceutical-industry observers and blogs are suggesting that the backroom deal made last year by the drug makers' top lobbying group and the White House -- a controversial handshake agreement that limited Big Pharma's share of footing the health-care bill at $80 billion over 10 years -- has fallen apart now that President Barack Obama has introduced a revised form of the bill last in the wake of shifting public opinion. And the deal's architect, PhRMA President Billy Tauzin, a former Congressman from Louisiana, announced his resignation last month. That resignation is effective June 30.
The problem for PhRMA is that it's already honored its end of the deal and can do nothing to stop the terms from changing. The new health-care proposal includes, among other things, a clause that allows the government to negotiate directly for Medicare drug prices. That language was not in the initial health-care bill as part of PhRMA's deal with the White House. And as of now, that $80 billion cap is likely to increase to $90 billion, if not more. Indeed, with no firm deal in place, there's nothing protecting PhRMA at all.
"The deal PhRMA negotiated could still be on the table, but you need to have the other side actively engaged," said longtime pharmaceutical expert Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner at the FDA and now president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. "The White House is not necessarily in coordination with the Senate and the House, so it's confusing and now it's a bit of a crapshoot."
AARP, also an active player in the advertising business last year in support of health-care overhaul, said this week it would scale back its media spending this time around. "Are we just going to sit on the sidelines? No," David Sloane, senior VP-government relations for AARP, told Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. "[But] I don't think advertising is the way to secure votes."
Meanwhile, several entities -- all against the health-care legislation -- have launched or are about to launch ad campaigns, the biggest of which is an effort from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of 248 lobbying groups that will spend up to $10 million in measured media over a 10-day period.
The rest of the story can be found HERE
It's looking likely that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America wasted up to $100 million in advertising to promote a health-care-reform bill that will ultimately offer the industry no protection.
Some pharmaceutical-industry observers and blogs are suggesting that the backroom deal made last year by the drug makers' top lobbying group and the White House -- a controversial handshake agreement that limited Big Pharma's share of footing the health-care bill at $80 billion over 10 years -- has fallen apart now that President Barack Obama has introduced a revised form of the bill last in the wake of shifting public opinion. And the deal's architect, PhRMA President Billy Tauzin, a former Congressman from Louisiana, announced his resignation last month. That resignation is effective June 30.
The problem for PhRMA is that it's already honored its end of the deal and can do nothing to stop the terms from changing. The new health-care proposal includes, among other things, a clause that allows the government to negotiate directly for Medicare drug prices. That language was not in the initial health-care bill as part of PhRMA's deal with the White House. And as of now, that $80 billion cap is likely to increase to $90 billion, if not more. Indeed, with no firm deal in place, there's nothing protecting PhRMA at all.
"The deal PhRMA negotiated could still be on the table, but you need to have the other side actively engaged," said longtime pharmaceutical expert Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner at the FDA and now president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. "The White House is not necessarily in coordination with the Senate and the House, so it's confusing and now it's a bit of a crapshoot."
AARP, also an active player in the advertising business last year in support of health-care overhaul, said this week it would scale back its media spending this time around. "Are we just going to sit on the sidelines? No," David Sloane, senior VP-government relations for AARP, told Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. "[But] I don't think advertising is the way to secure votes."
Meanwhile, several entities -- all against the health-care legislation -- have launched or are about to launch ad campaigns, the biggest of which is an effort from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of 248 lobbying groups that will spend up to $10 million in measured media over a 10-day period.
The rest of the story can be found HERE
