Big Pharma has been used to years of lax oversight, unabashed commercials for profitable drugs and general use of scumbaggerous (yes, that's my word) methods such as overcharging for life-saving drugs, skimping on research for rare disease because it isn't cost-effective and lobbying Congress at a ridiculous pace. Now with Obama coming into town, they are afraid of being regulated and are ready for reform...or at least look like it.
From The Washington Post:ad_icon
Well that certainly does sound like tough talk for a new era, but let's consider the source. Billy Tauzin is famous for handing large gifts to the drug companies in exchange for his current comfy position with them. He is hardly one to be trusted with actual reform. The only reason that he wants the industry to play nice with Democrats and gain a better image is because they are afraid of looking like the gluttonous a**holes that they have been for the last eight years (and more). Real reform is only going to come from one direction, tough regulation of an industry that is insanely out of control.
"We had better self-police and stop doing the things that cause so much criticism, or we're going to get legislated and regulated by government," said W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, the Republican former congressman who runs the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association. The changes, he said in an interview, are an effort to move away from the industry's "slash-and-burn kind of policy" in response to previous regulatory and legislative efforts.
Even before Obama's victory, the drug lobby took a dramatic political turn: In 2008, for the first time in 18 years, industry contributions to Democrats were on par with money given to Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.
"PhRMA had been isolated into a one-party camp," Tauzin said. "We're trying to reposition as less of a partisan player."
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