Monday, July 06, 2009
Max Baucus
It remains to be seen if the pharmaceutical industry’s offer to provide discounts valued at $80 billion over the next 10 years will really produce savings, considering drug manufacturers may actually make money from their proposal.
A big part of the industry’s plan includes a 50% discount to Medicare recipients who fall into the so-called “donut hole” that leaves thousands without coverage and forced to pay exorbitant prices for drugs. But the discount may have the effect of encouraging Medicare patients to buy name brand drugs, instead of cheaper generics, and that development couldn’t come at a better time for many Big Pharma members. Some of the best-selling drugs on the market today are fast approaching the time when their patents will expire, including Lipitor ($7.8 billion in sales in 2008) and Plavix ($4.9 billion). So any plan that discourages people from buying generics is a great scheme for the likes of Pfizer (Lipitor) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (Plavix).
Meanwhile, political forces from President Barack Obama to the AARP to Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) applauded Big Pharma’s discount plan. Baucus in particular is a key player in the health reform debate who has taken millions from industries that make up the current system of medical delivery. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has received more than $3 million in donations from doctors, drug companies and insurers since 1989, according to OpenSecrets.org.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Congress's $1.2 Million a Day Drug Habit—and Pharma's Phony "Gift" to Health Care Reform (by James Ridgeway, Mother Jones)
Baucus-led "Coalition" Receives Health Sector Dollars (by Aaron Kiersh, OpenSecrets.org)
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