And then there's lobby power.
Just as former Louisiana Republican representative Billy Tauzin left the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which oversees the drug industry and resurfaced as head of PhRMA, Pfizer recently hired Gregory Simon who served on Obama's transition team and as chief domestic policy advisor to Vice President Gore to head its "global policy effort." Its senior corporate counsel until 2008, Arnold Friede, had an FDA background and Pfizer's former senior vice president for worldwide public affairs, Richard Bagger, has re-emerged as New Jersey Governor Christopher Christie's chief of staff. Hey, you guys look familiar!
Nor does it hurt that CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler was elected a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2009 and board chairman of the lobbying group PhRMA in 2010.
Even the Bextra settlement arouses cynicism since $102 million of it went to a doctor and five former Pfizer reps who served as whistleblowers on the case, one getting $51 million.
Isn't making big money off pharma how the trouble started?
An earlier version of this report appeared on Alternet.org
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