WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a paragraph into the “fiscal cliff” bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored one of its drugs.
The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis patients.
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.
Amgen has deep financial and political ties to lawmakers like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and Senators Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, who hold heavy sway over Medicare payment policy as the leaders of the Finance Committee.
Gee, it's great knowing how hysterical the GOTP is over the deficit--while guaranteeing a $500 MILLION giveaway to their rich buddies... (I wonder if they know about those ways to protect it in offshore accounts in the Caymans, Bermuda and Switzerland... I think I know who to call to make sure they get the details... If he can tear himself away from the installation of his new car-elevator, I'm sure he would be a wealth of information.)
This should have never happened, its bad enough that a lot of elderly folks are having a tough enough time getting the meds they need, congress by doing this just makes it harder.
