Half-a-Billion dollar Giveaway to Big Pharma Hidden in the 'Fiscal Bluff' Legislation [View all]

[grahamhgreen]

Last edited Sun Jan 20, 2013, 02:08 PM - Edit history (1)

The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period.

Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.

But critics, including several Congressional aides who were stunned to find the measure in the final bill, pointed out that Amgen had already won a previous two-year delay, and they depicted a second one as an unnecessary giveaway. “That is why we are in the trouble we are in,” said Dennis J. Cotter, a health policy researcher who studies the cost and efficacy of dialysis drugs. “Everybody is carving out their own turf and getting it protected, and we pass the bill on to the taxpayer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/medicare-pricing-delay-is-political-win-for-amgen-drug-maker.html?_r=0


It's not funny. They pass a bill to 'reduce the deficit' that winds up costing Medicare more - in order that they have an excuse to cut the benefits, presumably, as well as enrich their benefactors.