Drug Lobby Group Taps Tauzin for Top Job

Reuters via NYTimes.com ^ | 12/15/2004

[GeneD]

Filed at 4:32 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. House of Representatives committee chairman, who earlier this year ended negotiations to head the pharmaceutical industry's top lobby after critics questioned the ethics of the move, has now accepted the post, the group said on Wednesday.

Rep. W. J. ``Billy'' Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, announced in February that he would step down as the Energy and Commerce Committee chairman and leave Congress because of a bleeding ulcer.

Democrats criticized him for considering the high-profile post leading the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which lobbies Congress on behalf of drug companies, while he was still chairman of the committee that regulates the drug industry.

He ended talks with the group, saying the controversy was a distraction. The issue had threatened to create headaches for Tauzin's Republican party in this year's election campaign, which featured a fierce debate over the price of prescription medication.

At the time, Tauzin's spokesman Ken Johnson said the congressman had no second thoughts. ``Billy decided to put it behind him. He has served in Congress for nearly 24 years with honor and distinction and he does not want to leave with a cloud over his head,'' Johnson said in February.

Tauzin's ulcer was later diagnosed as a rare form of intestinal cancer, and he underwent surgery in March.

``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 in a statement released by PhRMA.

But Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen's CongressWatch, called the announcement's timing suspicious and said it looked like Tauzin and PhRMA waited for the controversy to subside. ``This does not look like just a change of heart,'' Holman said.

Holman said the move was not surprising, given the so-called ``revolving door'' of congressman who leave office for the private sector.

``It certainly doesn't pass the smell test,'' he said, citing Tauzin's key role in getting a Medicare prescription drug bill through Congress last December, a measure critics blasted as a windfall for drug makers.

Tauzin, in an interview, denied such charges and said he decided to stop seeking the job because of his condition but was now in ``excellent'' health.

``The doctors have cleared me to go back to work,'' he said.

He added that his bout with cancer would help him ``be a strong patient voice for the industry because I have been one.''

Tauzin, 61, will take up his new post Jan. 3, replacing Alan Holmer, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

``Billy knows how to work across party lines, how to develop meaningful partnerships and he will drive this transformation forward,'' PhRMA Chairman Miles White said.

White has said the group will focus on making medicines more affordable and developing new treatments. PhRMA will press for tort reform, fewer uninsured Americans, and an expansion of companies' patient assistant programs that provide free drugs to the needy, he said in June.