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Here's the link. In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion.. The health care lobbyist said that what deal still exists is uncertain, as a result of House pressure. "Now the White House is backing away from it, as you know, because of pressure from the House, because the House was not a party to the deal," he said. "The Speaker put enormous pressure on the White House, [saying], 'We weren't a...

I did everything I could—including risking life in prison. Back in the 1980s-1990s, the Life Extension Foundation® crusaded to enlighten Americans about the economic ruination that would occur if this country’s corrupt drug regulatory structure was not abolished. At the behest of pharmaceutical interests, the FDA brutally retaliated against us. What I am about to divulge is a shocking revelation about why prescription drugs cost so much. I want to remind readers what happens when an apathetic public allows archaic government regulations to rule the marketplace. In the 1940s, Argentina was the ninth wealthiest country in the world. At one...

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed...

As a political strategist, Big Pharma lobbyist Billy Tauzin is starting to look less like Dr. Faustus and more like Jack, trading away his industry for magic beans. Last week Mr. Tauzin ostentatiously blabbed to the media that his industry's deal to help fund ObamaCare with $80 billion in prescription-drug discounts was really protection money. In particular, he bragged that he had secured promises from the White House that President Obama would fend off Congressional Democrats who want to "negotiate" drug prices, which in practice means price controls. For days, the White House continued to confirm Mr. Tauzin's understanding: "We...

Government health officials in the Czech Republic have refused to buy H1N1 flu vaccines from US pharmaceutical firm Baxter International, citing safety concerns. According to a report by the Czech News Agency CTK, one of the largest English language news outlets in the country, the Czech Health Ministry has halted talks with Baxter citing “the firm’s inability to guarantee that the vaccine is safe and who will bear the risks for possible side-effects.” The country plans to buy vaccines to cover 25 percent of its population of ten million, but has said it will not buy swine flu vaccine from...

NEW DELHI: China has admitted that its pharmaceutical companies were involved in shipping fake drugs labeled 'Made In India' to Nigeria. "The Chinese authorities have accepted this position (that its firms were involved in the case)," an official said. "The Indian government took up the matter with the Nigerian authorities and on further probe, it was found that the drugs had actually originated in China and not in India," he added. In June, Nigeria's drug regulatory authority National Agency for Food and Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) had reported about the detention of a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic...

The LATimes is once again trying to sell another Obama healthcare fairy tale to an unsuspecting public. This time, ABC is reporting that Obama has “given a seat at the table” of the healthcare debate to former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin who now represents some powerful drug companies. The Times is reporting this as if it is meaningful news. Unfortunately for all concerned it is not. For the Times, Tom Hamburger starts off mentioning how Obama lambasted Tauzin and his lobbying interests during the recent presidential campaign but that he’s done an about face by inviting Tauzin to the White...

WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday. The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would...

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing. The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay. What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50. "It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority. The White House and allies in Congress are well aware of the effort by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a somewhat surprising political alliance, given the industry's recent history of siding with Republicans and the Democrats' disdain for special interests. The campaign, now in its early stages, includes television advertising under PhRMA's own name and commercials aired in conjunction with...

Big Pharma and probably Big Insurance have probably kicked in with the Democrats in DCWhile this initially may appear to be a good business move on their part, the boards of these companies may not CLEARLY realize that their owners are the productive class.It's time to sell every stock and mutual fund that hold these stocks. The board must hear from the "owners".They think $80bil was affordable...an $80bil that would come out of the consumers pocket. However, I wonder how affordable their decision will seem in the light of their stock price dropping 50%...or 60...or 75%?

The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail Obama's top domestic priority.

Barack Obama declared a big victory in his attempt to nationalize the health-care industry when he got the backing of the pharmaceutical industry, along with their pledge to reduce $80 billion in costs over the first decade of the plan. Now, however, the question of what the industry received in return has arisen now that the House version includes price negotiation on Medicare-funded prescription medications. The New York Times reported yesterday that the industry’s lobbyists have begun to cry foul as the administration apparently reneged on an agreement the White House wanted kept quiet: Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm...

WASHINGTON — Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers. In response, the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul....

The holiday home of Novartis chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella has been badly damaged by fire, a week after his mother's grave was desecrated by animal rights militants. Although police do not know who or what caused the fire early on Monday morning in the Tyrol, there is speculation that it is the work of the same group that took the urn of Vasella's mother on July 27. Her gravestone was defiled with a message saying the Basel pharmaceutical company must sever its ties with Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest contract animal-testing company in Europe. The recent attacks...

BERN, Switzerland – Drug maker Novartis AG said Tuesday that animal rights activists have stolen the ashes of its CEO's mother and set fire to his Austrian hunting lodge. Swiss authorities, however, said they didn't know who was behind the attacks. In the latest incident, CEO Daniel Vasella's Tyrollean lodge in Bach, Austria, was badly burned early Monday morning. "It was arson with a professional fire accelerator," Novartis spokeswoman Isabel Guerra said in Basel.

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died. If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought. Currently, eight women have...

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an Injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America....

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the principal authors of health care legislation taking shape in the House accused drug companies and other medical providers Wednesday of stealing, and said they are now offering concessions in the hopes the bill that emerges will not demand too much of them. "Everyone knows that people around the table are stealing, but they don't want to turn each other in if they're going to have to pay the full penalty," said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Asked in an interview on MSNBC what he meant by stealing, the...