By Donald Zuhn --
The Senate patent reform bill may or may not be dead (see "Bush Administration Continues Attempt to Destroy U.S. Patent System"). However, if the bill's time has indeed come and gone (at least as far as the 110th Congress is concerned), its passing will be due in no small part to the efforts of biotech and pharma companies to aggressively lobby against the bill.
For the past few months, we have been reporting on the recent lobbying expenditures of a number of biotech and pharma companies. For example, we noted that Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, AstraZeneca, and Abbott Laboratories spent between $1.28 million and $4.4 million on lobbying in 2007. Most of these funds presumably went to lobby on the patent reform and follow-on biologics bills that were being considered by Congress last year. More recently, we reported that Abbott spent $880,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2008.
Two more reports regarding first quarter spending can now be added to the list. First, the Houston Chronicle reported last Friday that Cephalon, Inc. spent $512,000 on lobbying in the first quarter. While the Frazer, PA-based biotech company lobbied in favor of more funding for the FDA and for new standards for alcoholism treatments (Cephalon markets the injectable drug Vivitrol® for treating alcoholism), it also lobbied against the Senate patent reform bill.
Topping both Abbott and Cephalon, however, was Amgen Inc. Forbes.com reported that the Thousand Oaks, CA-based biotech company spent $2.5 million on lobbying in the first quarter. Amgen's lobbying efforts were aimed in part at the patent reform and follow-on biologics bills. With respect to the follow-on biologics legislation, Forbes.com indicated that Amgen was pushing for a compromise before the fall elections, when Democrats are expected to pick up additional seats in Congress.
However, as we noted earlier this month, with the patent reform bill seemingly stalled in the Senate, the follow-on biologics legislation on the backburner (notwithstanding the biotech industry's desire to negotiate a compromise), and the economy struggling, it will be interesting to see if biotech and pharma companies begin to cut back on lobbying in the second quarter.
For additional information regarding this topic, please see:
• "Abbott's First Quarter Lobbying Tab Hits $880,000," May 2, 2008
• "Abbott Spent $4.4 Million on 2007 Lobbying Effort," March 17, 2008
• "Biotech and Pharma Companies Spent Millions on Lobbying in 2007," March 5, 2008
• "Millennium Pharmaceuticals Spent $1.28 Million on Lobbying in 2007," February 8, 2008
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