Huge drug company benefits from Democratic interference?

[MrsSmith]

What Did Pelosi Know about Amgen's Woes and When Did She Know It?

By Ray Robison


The Speaker of the House has been very good to Amgen. And vice-versa.

The year 2007 kicked off with expectations of good market news for the California-based biotech firm. It was expected to surge 27 percent on its share value that year according to analysts with Thompson Financial.  Instead, it did just the opposite, beginning a sharp tumble down after just the first few weeks into the year.


After falling from the mid seventies to the mid fifties, the stock started to get back on its feet. Until May of 2007, that is, when Medicare announced it was considering new restrictions on the use of anemia treatment drugs made by Amgen for its own sales, and for Johnson & Johnson to market under a different product name. The New York Times reported on this issue in mid August, 2007:


Amgen executives said the new Medicare policy would force huge restrictions on use of Aranesp and force doctors to change how they practice. Doctors and patient groups are protesting the decision, but it is not clear that Medicare will change it.

>>>snip

Amgen not only dogged a bullet, it had Nancy Pelosi to help smack the gun out of Medicare's hand. Although her signature is not visible on legislation, as Speaker she sets the agenda in the House. It suddenly became important for congress to intervene in this regulatory matter during the summer of 2007.


The effort in the House was spearheaded by one of her closest confidantes, Anna Eshoo. The sister Congresswoman told the San Francisco Chronicle "we've known each other for 30 years." The Chronicle has labeled her one of Pelosi's closest friends in Congress. A raft of bills, bipartisan in nature but mostly championed by Congresswoman Eshoo in the House, would be submitted that fall: (http://thomas.loc.gov/, search term "Erythropoiesis")


>>>snip

Over the next few months, Amgen executives, including the CEO, Chairman and President of Amgen, began donating money to congressional campaign committees and to some campaign coffers in particular. They were most generous to Pelosi, becoming her largest corporate donor for the year. The bulk of it came the week before Medicare was set to make the change official at the beginning of August.


It's not a new or particularly nefarious concept, donating money to a politician who can help you. It's just usually done a little more subtly, staggered out at seemly intervals, not all dumped in at once, at the end of July, as if to indicate a time of significance had arrived. And it usually doesn't involve a politician with a personal financial stake in the matter. Pelosi and her husband Paul owned between a quarter and a half million dollars of Johnson & Johnson stock...

It's always nice to see the Democrats following their policy of cleaning up the government...