http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tauzin16dec16,0,2296431.story?coll=la-home-nation
THE NATION
Congressman's New Job Is Top Drug Lobbyist
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Times Staff Writer

December 16, 2004

WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry on Wednesday named as its top lobbyist a longtime congressman who had been among those overseeing it. The new job is said to come with a $1-million-plus salary.

Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, who exercised jurisdiction over the industry as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Jan. 3, when he retires from Congress.

Obtaining Tauzin's services is seen a coup for the influential industry group, which faces consumer demands for cheaper medications from Canada and elsewhere and the fallout from fresh evidence of dangerous side effects from some drugs.

The appointment drew criticism from consumer advocates, along with calls for prohibiting lawmakers from negotiating employment deals while in office and for extending the one-year ban on former members lobbying their old colleagues.

The 13-term Louisiana Republican will go from a congressional salary of $158,100 a year to bringing home more than $1 million a year, according to a knowledgeable source. As a committee chairman in 2003, Tauzin helped to write the law to provide outpatient prescription coverage under Medicare.

"The appearance is terrible," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), one of the most senior Democrats on the panel that Tauzin headed. "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."

PhRMA Chairman Miles D. White said the industry sought a strong advocate in Washington. "We wanted a leader who has a background and a track record of dealing with complex and controversial issues in a constructive way," said White, also chairman and chief executive of Abbott Laboratories.

PhRMA had approached intermediaries for Tauzin early this year, when he was also being courted by the movie industry. Rumors about the job discussions made some of his colleagues uncomfortable, and Tauzin relinquished his chairmanship.

Then doctors discovered a rare form of cancer in his small intestine, close to his pancreas. Tauzin, 61, was sidelined for much of the spring as he underwent major surgery and follow-up treatment. He has said he is now cancer-free.

His medical odyssey made him more interested in the drug industry job, Tauzin said in an interview. "This is a mission I wanted to take on," he said. "Like Lance Armstrong, I've got a story to tell." The cycling champion's career was interrupted by cancer, but he recovered and dominated the Tour de France.

Tauzin acknowledged that it wouldn't be easy to repair the industry's image. "We're ready to face the fact that as an industry we need to do a lot better job of addressing family and patient concerns, to reestablish trust and confidence," he said.

Leading members of Congress have criticized the relationship between the industry and the Food and Drug Administration as too cozy, and not in consumers' best interest. Tauzin's former committee is investigating Vioxx, a painkiller recently withdrawn from the market after it was linked to heart attacks.

And the Bush administration is rumored to be wavering in its opposition to allowing lower-cost drug imports, which the industry opposes.

Tauzin will guide the industry's strategy for dealing with the new Medicare prescription coverage. If the government decides to limit the drugs it will pay for, or to push for deep discounts, that may put the industry at a disadvantage.

As a former congressman, Tauzin will be barred from lobbying lawmakers for a year. But that should not stop him from exercising influence.

"He can provide PhRMA with a strategy and members of Congress will know very well who is behind the strategy," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political contributions. "Other people can go meet directly with lawmakers."

"This is the way Washington works," Noble said. "It is the classic revolving door."

Tauzin is by no means the first House member to become a highly paid industry representative. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 150 former lawmakers were registered as lobbyists in 2000.

He may be one of the more colorful, however. With solid people skills, a sharp sense of humor and a hard-charging style, he managed to succeed on both sides of the political aisle as a congressional power broker.

Originally elected as a conservative Democrat, he switched parties after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.

Public Citizen, the consumer group, said Tauzin's new post showed the need for reforms to make it harder for trade groups to enlist the aid of former lawmakers. The organization called for a three-year ban on lobbying by former lawmakers to replace the current one-year restriction.

"The largest lobbying operation in Washington has just raised the price tag for hiring the services of a former member of Congress," said Frank Clemente, director of Congress Watch, an arm of Public Citizen.

Tauzin's former spokesman, Ken Johnson, said his ex-boss followed all the rules in making his transition. "There was never any contact by the industry or any of its representatives during the Medicare debate," he said.

"Billy has served the public for more than 30 years. At 61, and following a near-death experience, he deserves the opportunity to explore the private sector and owes no one any apology."

Asked how much he will make representing the drug industry, Tauzin declined to give a direct answer.

"The question is not whether I'll be doing well," he said. "I was going to do well. I took this job because there is a mission involved, and I wanted something that would challenge and inspire me."

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/16/politics/16drug.html?hp&ex=1103259600&en=3cf5c800c58d0497&ei=5094&partner=homepage

December 16, 2004
House's Author of Drug Benefit Joins Lobbyists
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.

The wheels of history are stuck in a rut that goes in a circle. We repeatedly go through the same cycles, over and over.

Still, it's always a surprise.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1103182237211770.xml

From New Orleans' Times-Picayune

Tauzin to head drug lobby
Post-Congress career called 'outrageous'
Thursday, December 16, 2004
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- Retiring Rep. Billy Tauzin, who once led the House committee that oversees drug makers and helped write the bill to expand Medicare prescription coverage, will become the head of the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbying group next month.

Acknowledging that drug companies have "a black eye" with many Americans because of rising costs and safety concerns, Tauzin said Wednesday he is determined to restore trust "with concrete steps, not just better public relations."
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His contract as president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which has 150 employees and offices in Washington, Tokyo and Brussels, Belgium, runs for five years. He begins work Jan. 3, the day his House retirement begins.

Tauzin, 61, wouldn't disclose his salary, but sources peg it in the ballpark of $1.5 million a year.

Tauzin drew criticism this year after he had authorized his attorney to open negotiations with the trade group while he was still chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the drug industry. Consumer groups and Democrats pointed out that the Medicare legislation Tauzin helped craft included favorable terms for the manufacturers.

He stepped down as energy panel chairman and pledged to avoid any votes on matters related to the drug companies. The talks were later broken off after Tauzin was hospitalized with intestinal cancer. He underwent surgery in March, followed by months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Tauzin returned to Capitol Hill last month, telling colleagues that his doctors had declared him cancer-free. The pharmaceutical group apparently was willing to wait.

PhRMA's board chairman, Miles White, said Tauzin was the logical choice to replace Alan Holmer, who began what the association described as a new effort to help Americans struggling with high prescription costs.

"Billy knows how to work across party lines, how to develop meaningful partnerships, and he will drive this transformation forward," White said. Another PhRMA official said Tauzin continued to be the group's first choice to replace Holmer, even though there were doubts, "including from Billy himself," whether he'd be healthy enough to take the job.

Plans for change

Tauzin, who served 24 years in the House, 15 as a Democrat and the past nine as a Republican, said PhRMA's board understands that the industry's reputation has taken a hit because so many Americans have difficulty paying for the "life-saving drugs" that pharmaceutical research created.

The industry also has been criticized recently on safety after regulators banned the sale of the heavily marketed arthritis medication Vioxx, which studies connected to an increase in heart attacks.

Tauzin said he is committed to bringing on line new programs to help Americans afford the drugs they need and make the industry's deliberations over safety and other important issues more transparent.

He also must deal with the political pressure to re-import U.S.-manufactured drugs from Canada, where they are cheaper because of price controls. Tauzin said he hopes that by making domestic drugs more affordable, the importation issues will become less viable.

Critics outraged

The delay in Tauzin's move to PhRMA did not dampen the criticism.

"We think this is outrageous," said Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for Common Cause, a consumer advocacy group. "It raises the question of whether while negotiating the Medicare prescription drug bill he was working for Americans or his own personal gain."

The law prohibits the government from negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare recipients, which the industry said would be the same as price fixing. Critics say the measure is a huge gift to the industry.

"The appearance is terrible," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "The 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."

But Sen. John Breaux, D-La., who like Tauzin is retiring from Congress and is expected to announce his own high-paying private-sector job soon, praised his former LSU Law School roommate.

"Billy Tauzin brings to PhRMA extraordinary legislative skills at a time when the association faces great challenges," Breaux said. "I am confident Billy will be able to reach across party lines and demonstrate to the Congress and the public that America's pharmaceutical industry is one of our most valued."

Janell Mayo Duncan, the legislative and regulatory counsel for Consumers Union, said Tauzin "understands the legislative process" and is in a position to help consumers.

"We hope this is the dawn of a new day at PhRMA where he will lead the member companies to more of a focus on safety and making prescription drugs more affordable for Americans," Mayo Duncan said.

'Enhancing lives'

Tauzin, who said he considered two other high-paying offers from lobbying firms, said his fight with cancer this year was a deciding factor in choosing the pharmaceutical job.

"As I worked through my recovery, I realized that I wanted to work in an industry whose mission is no less than saving and enhancing lives," Tauzin said.

Tauzin was a top recipient of pharmaceutical industry contributions during his congressional career. In 2002, he got $119,750 from drug and health products interests, the third-highest total among House members, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Tauzin is expected to bring with him to PhRMA his longtime aide, Ken Johnson, who is expected to become the vice president for communications, and his House chief of staff, Mimi Simoneaux, as senior vice president for external affairs.

I posted this because we all know in the music business that legislation is written by industry hacks and handed over the desk to Congressional staffers for rubberstamping.

Tauzin has long been spreading his legs for the film business, and I guess they didn't offer him enough to become Valenti's successor.

This outrageous Big Pharma behaviour will lead to increased suspicion of RIAA and MPAA corruption.

Never again will Congress pass legislation without reading it, when it has something to do with movies or music. Common Cause will make sure of that. The RIAA has repeatedly tried to slip copyright riders into every piece of Patriot Act and Seditious Crimes legislation to enter one of Cary Sherman's wet dreams.

So thanks to the brazen corruption of Billy "Hollywood" Tauzin, we can look forward to the RIAA and MPAA being treated like the lepers they are.

Let's hope so, but somehow, I think they will just forget about it and do as they always do.

...But then again, maybe the recent news over Celebrex and Viox and the other over-priced highly promoted drugs will wake up a few folks against the pharm industry.

The RIAA is bad, but the Drug Industry negligently KILLS people to make $$$ off an aspirin substitute.