Clearing The Air

Drugmakers learn lesson from smoking bans

Drugmakers like Johnson & Johnson learned there's big money in politics. Specifically if they spend millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers for laws that benefit their business interests....the payback will be huge.

Johnson & Johnson (maker of Nicoderm) used their partner, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to fund lobbyists who would get tobacco use banned.

Now with a government run healthcare obsession gripping all of Washington DC, PHARMA is actively lobbying lawmakers to make sure the new government healthcare program benefits their business interests.

Examples:

"a string of victories" plucked from the Senate Finance Committee by drug company lobbyists, including no cost-cutting steps, no cheaper drugs to be allowed across the border from Canada, and no direct Federal government negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies to lower Medicare drug prices........And that's not all. The Senate Health Committee is giving the biotech industry monopoly protection against competition from generic drugs for 12 years after they go on the market.

Full WSJ article found here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124779006528954995.html

Update: J & J spent $1.5 million lobbying Obama White House for laws that will increase their profits.......just as smoking bans have.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 3:55 PM