Big Pharma Quietly Enlists Leading Professors to Justify $1,000-Per-Day Drugs

[Bill USA]

[font size="3"]As it readies for battle with President Trump over drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry is deploying economists and health care experts from the nation’s top universities. In scholarly articles, blogs and conferences, they lend their prestige to the lobbying blitz, without always disclosing their corporate ties.[/font]


https://www.propublica.org/article/big-pharma-quietly-enlists-leading-professors-to-justify-1000-per-day-drugs?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

Over the last three years, pharmaceutical companies have mounted a public relations blitz to tout new cures for the hepatitis C virus and persuade insurers, including government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, to cover the costs. That isn’t an easy sell, because the price of the treatments ranges from $40,000 to $94,000 — or, because the treatments take three months, as much as $1,000 per day.

To persuade payers and the public, the industry has deployed a potent new ally, a company whose marquee figures are leading economists and health care experts at the nation’s top universities. The company, Precision Health Economics, consults for three leading makers of new hepatitis C treatments: Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AbbVie. When AbbVie funded a special issue of the American Journal of Managed Care on hepatitis C research, current or former associates of Precision Health Economics wrote half of the issue. A Stanford professor who had previously consulted for the firm served as guest editor-in-chief.

At a congressional briefing last May on hepatitis C, three of the four panelists were current or former Precision Health Economics consultants. One was the firm’s co-founder, Darius Lakdawalla, a University of Southern California professor.

“The returns to society actually exist even at the high prices,” Lakdawalla assured the audience of congressional staffers and health policymakers. “Some people who are just looking at the problem as a pure cost-effectiveness problem said some of these prices in some ways are too low.”

(more)

[BeckyDem]

1. I am almost certain they spend more on lobbyists than any other group.

Bastards.

[Bill USA]

3. one page on OpenSecrets.org shows Pharma as the top industry 4 lobbying, but another page does not

THis page is identified as "Lobbying".."top industries" shows "Pharmaceuticals and Health Products" as the top lobbying industry group...with SEcurities and Investment down at the 8th position.

https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i&showYear=2016



But the following page, identified as "Election Overview"..2016 ..."Top Industries" shows contributions to candidates and PACS. this page shows Securities/Investment as the top industry group, and does not even show Pharmaceuticals mfg..

https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/industries.php

METHODOLOGY: The numbers on this page are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more to candidates and party committees, and from donors (including corporate and union treasuries) giving to super PACs and other outside groups, as reported to the Federal Election Commission.

I guess the first page shows lobbying efforts not focused on candidates in campaigns but focused on legislators in support of -- or in opposition to -- specific pieces of legislation....

[BeckyDem]

4. Right, they seem to be top dog.

This is from sept 2016 and has them at the top too, then the insurance industry.

Drug makers have been getting their $2.3 billion worth in Washington. That is how much they have spent lobbying Congress over the last decade. It may help explain why no legislative proposal to rein in rising prescription prices has gone anywhere. The latest outcry involving Mylan will put that hefty investment in influence to its biggest test.

All the while, the pharmaceutical industry has been spreading dollars around the nation’s capital. Drug makers doled out $240 million for lobbying purposes last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making it the biggest spender. The insurance industry was second, at $157 million.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/business/dealbook/rising-drug-prices-put-big-pharmas-lobbying-to-the-test.html

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Vile!