Amgen Gift Hidden In “fiscal cliff” bill approved three weeks ago by Congress

January 23, 2013, 4:51 pm

Vermont Lawmaker Moves to Repeal Protection for Drug Maker

By ERIC LIPTON

A Vermont lawmaker on Wednesday introduced legislation that would repeal language passed into law in early January that benefits a California-based biotechnology company, saying the deal “confirms the American public’s worst suspicions of how Congress operates.”

The bill introduced by Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, would eliminate the two-year delay in Medicare price restraints that Amgen, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., sought as part of the legislation to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. The provision protects certain oral drugs, including Amgen’s Sensipar, from Medicare price controls, costing the federal government perhaps as much as $500 million in the coming two years.

This special protection, first detailed in The New York Times, was supported by the two top members of the Senate Finance Committee — Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah — who are major recipients of campaign contributions from Amgen and its employees.

Aides for the senators, and a spokeswoman for Amgen, said the delay in the price controls was necessary to protect kidney dialysis patients, because so many other changes are already taking place in the way Medicare covers this care. They dismissed any suggestion that the provision was related to political contributions, saying the change was good public policy.

“Patient access to necessary treatments would be compromised,” Kelley Davenport, an Amgen spokeswoman , said in a written statement Wednesday, defending the provision and opposing any repeal.

But critics called the provision an unnecessary giveaway to Amgen.

NYT's Source

Amgen Guilty Plea...

Amgen Agrees to Pay $762 Million for Marketing Anemia Drug for Off-Label Use

By ANDREW POLLACK and MOSI SECRET

Published: December 18, 2012

December 18, 2012 Amgen pleaded guilty to illegally marketing the drug and agreed to pay $762 million in criminal penalties and settlements of whistle-blower lawsuits. Amgen was “pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety,” Marshall L. Miller, acting United States attorney in Brooklyn, said in a telephone news briefing on Tuesday. ... But the repeal of the provision has little chance of becoming law unless a much larger number of lawmakers sign on to the effort, and then move to attach the repeal to some other piece of related legislation moving through the House.

The New York Times Article

Three weeks later they were given this gift...

Amgen Gets a Gift From Congress

Published: January 22, 2013

For a disheartening example of how intense lobbying and financial contributions can distort the legislative process in Washington, consider what happened to the “fiscal cliff” bill approved three weeks ago by Congress. 

Senators who play a major role in federal health care financing were happy to help Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, evade Medicare cost-cutting controls by delaying price restraints on a class of drugs used by kidney dialysis patients, including Sensipar, a drug made by Amgen. That provision was inserted into the final fiscal bill by Senate aides. Many members of Congress did not know it was in the bill until just hours before it was approved.

Although other companies will benefit financially from that delay, Amgen, which has 74 lobbyists in Washington, was the only company to lobby aggressively for the provision. The delay will cost the Medicare program up to $500 million over a two-year period.

Supporters of the delay — notably, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat of Montana, who leads the Senate Finance Committee, and Orrin Hatch, of Utah, the ranking Republican on that committee — say it is needed to give the Medicare system and dialysis providers time to absorb other complicated changes in federal reimbursements for kidney care. But there is good reason to suspect other factors were involved as well. Both senators have political and financial ties to Amgen, as does Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who exerted great influence over the fiscal negotiations and praised the Medicare provisions.

A top aide to Mr. Hatch, who was involved in negotiating the dialysis delay, previously worked as a health policy analyst for Amgen. The current lobbyists for Amgen include former chiefs of staff for both Mr. Baucus and Mr. McConnell. And the three senators have received substantial contributions from Amgen’s employees and its political action committee since 2007 — almost $68,000 to Senator Baucus, $59,000 to Senator Hatch, and $73,000 to Senator McConnell.

NYT Article