Drug Industry Chief Lobbyist Tauzin To Resign: Cut deal with White House to protect drug industry

[Better Believe It]

Drug industry lobbyist Billy Tauzin to resign
By Tom Hamburger
February 12, 2010

Reporting from Washington - Billy Tauzin, the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry who forged a private deal with the Obama administration to push the healthcare overhaul forward, will announce his resignation Friday, further complicating the outlook for passage of comprehensive legislation this year.

Tauzin, a garrulous former Louisiana congressman, has been considered a brilliant and bold negotiator, particularly in mid-2009 when he cut a deal with the White House to back the healthcare overhaul that once seemed all but inevitable.

The White House eagerly negotiated with Tauzin starting last January in part because officials understood that the drug companies could play a significant role in either passing or defeating healthcare legislation.

Tauzin offered political and financial support for the president's healthcare initiative, a remarkable shift considering that drug companies spent vigorously to oppose President Clinton's proposed healthcare overhaul.

Behind closed doors, Tauzin agreed to support the overhaul and provide $80 billion in savings to the Treasury over 10 years.

In exchange, he won a promise from the White House and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that the government would not impose further penalties on the industry, including a pledge to oppose legislation that would allow the government to negotiate prices with drug companies, something now prohibited by a law Tauzin helped pass. President Obama, when he was running for office, had criticized Tauzin's role in passing that rule.

Tauzin said he also received a White House promise not to pursue another proposal Obama had backed during the campaign: importing cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe.

The two proposals could cost the industry billions, undermine its ability to develop new cures and, in the case of imports, possibly compromise safety, industry officials contend.

The deal-making left House liberals, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), fuming.

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-phrma12-2010feb12,0,5093521.story

[timeforpeace]

1. You deal with the devil, you're gonna get burned.

[ProSense]

2. "further complicating the outlook for passage of comprehensive legislation this year" What?

:rofl: