Industry Hires House's Author of Drug Benefit

A Call To Action
The New York Times
December 16, 2004
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Representative Billy Tauzin, a principal author of the new Medicare drug law, will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the chief lobby for brand-name drug companies, the trade group announced Wednesday.

"This industry understands that it's got a problem," Mr. Tauzin, a Louisiana lawmaker who is retiring from Congress, said in an interview. "It has to earn the trust and confidence of consumers again."

Miles D. White, chairman of Abbott Laboratories and of the trade association, sitting next to Mr. Tauzin, said he agreed that the industry had lost the trust of millions of Americans.

Mr. Tauzin, a onetime Democrat who became a Republican in 1995, has a wealth of connections in Congress, where he has served for 24 years.

Drug makers said that the job was not a reward for Mr. Tauzin's work on the Medicare bill, which followed the industry's specifications in many respects. The law was signed by President Bush on Dec. 8, 2003, a few weeks before a lawyer for Mr. Tauzin began talks with the drug trade group.

Mr. Tauzin, 61, is the latest policy maker to move from government to industry. "It's a classic example of the revolving door," said Lawrence M. Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that tracks the influence of money on politics and government policy.

Thomas A. Scully, the administration's main negotiator with Congress on the drug bill, got a waiver of federal ethics rules that permitted him to negotiate with potential employers while he was still running the Medicare program. Since he joined a law firm last December, Mr. Scully has registered as a lobbyist for drug companies, including Abbott and Aventis.

Mr. Tauzin (pronounced TOE-zan) and Mr. White refused to discuss Mr. Tauzin's new salary, except to say it was comparable to the pay at other large trade associations. People at other trade groups said they believed that Mr. Tauzin would receive $2 million a year or more.

Representative Pete Stark of California, the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, said: "As a member of Congress, Billy negotiated a large payout to the pharmaceutical industry by the federal government. He's now about to receive one of the largest salaries ever paid to any advocate by an industry."

Mr. Tauzin wrote large parts of the new Medicare law as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and as a member of the conference committee that hashed out differences between the House and the Senate in four months of intense negotiations last year.

The law steers clear of price controls and price regulation, which are anathema to drug companies. The law forbids the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers to secure lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

Federal law prohibits a former member of Congress from lobbying the House or the Senate for one year after the lawmaker leaves office. In that "cooling off period," Mr. Tauzin cannot directly lobby Congress himself, but can legally tell other people how to lobby. In addition, he can make campaign contributions, attend fund-raisers and "interact socially" with people in Congress.

Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat who has focused on health policy for 30 years, did not question the legality of Mr. Tauzin's move. But Mr. Waxman said: "The appearance is terrible. A chief architect of the Medicare prescription drug legislation is now going to represent the chief beneficiary of the bill. This will only reinforce the public's disillusionment with Congress."

President Bush and Republicans in Congress say the law's main beneficiaries are Medicare recipients, not the industry.

Mr. Tauzin faces a paradox. Millions of Americans love the benefits of prescription drugs, but are outraged over drug prices and dislike drug makers. On the Senate floor two years ago, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, a supporter of the industry, said it was regularly portrayed as a "satanic" force, "a bunch of greedy, money-grubbing companies."

The industry is resisting a groundswell of support for proposals to legalize the import of lower-cost medicines from Canada and other countries.

Wilbert Joseph Tauzin, a colorful Cajun with the gift of gab, will take over on Jan. 3 from Alan F. Holmer, a trade lawyer who often appeared shy and awkward in public appearances.

The congressman waged a battle this year with intestinal cancer and said his life had been saved by Avastin, a biotechnology product made by Genentech and approved in February by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug works by choking off the blood vessels that provide a tumor with oxygen and nutrients.

Mr. Tauzin lost 45 pounds as he went through cancer surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. "I will look at things, for the first time in my life, from a patient's perspective, in a new way," he said.

Avastin illustrates the promise and the high cost of some new drugs. It costs about $4,400 a month, and a patient typically uses it for 10 or 11 months.

Mr. Tauzin broke off talks with the trade association in February when his cancer was detected.

In his last election campaign, Mr. Tauzin received $174,000 in contributions from health professionals and $119,750 from makers of drugs and other health products.

On his official Web site, Mr. Tauzin describes himself as an amateur actor and the "Cajun ambassador to Congress." In his south Louisiana district, he says, "the joie de vie - joy of life - is celebrated with a gusto that is envied across the nation." His son, Billy Tauzin III, just lost a bid to replace him in the House.

Another prominent member of the House Commerce Committee, Representative James C. Greenwood, Republican of Pennsylvania, will become president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization when he retires from Congress next month.

In January, Mr. Tauzin turned down an offer to succeed Jack Valenti as president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Dan Glickman, a House member from 1977 to 1995, took the job.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company