Monday, March 31, 2008

April Fools? What Insulin Makers Spent on Lobbying During 2007

Well, the news is out. According to new figures released on a government disclosure form which was published on Feb. 15, collectively, insulin manufacturers spent a whopping $5.32 million on lobbyists in Washington in 2007. Eli Lilly and Company took the prize for the biggest expenditure: $4.36 million, and rival Novo Nordisk spent just shy of a million ($960,000) on lobbyists in 2007.

Did they accomplish what they hoped?

Well, you be the judge: First, the Medicare drug benefit still cannot negotiate prices on drugs with the manufacturers, we as taxpayers pay the list price. Not bad ... for the drug companies. And then, of course, there was legislation introduced last year which would enable generic biopharmaceuticals, including generic forms of insulin (notably Humulin and Novolin varieties, as patients on Humalog and Novolog don't expire until 2012). But Congress never voted on the bill, so the legislation died without moving ahead. New legislation for this has also been introduced this year, but instead of a 7 year period of patent exclusivity, the sponsors have given pharma and biotech companies 12 years -- possibly even longer with the various extensions that they could qualify for. Again, delaying the inevitable means more money in the bank accounts of company executives (and maybe shareholders), so the money was well-spent from that perspective.

Its worth noting that Lilly's expenditure appears to be significantly more than Novo's, but considering the company's annual sales (on all products) in the U.S. are significantly more, both companies spent a comparable amount given the size of their businesses.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why should they fight for diabetics? If anyone found a cure, imagine how much money the testing suppliers would loose, the pharmacutical companies, the doctors. Do you really think anyone cares, if the money supply stops. After all is treatable.

Anonymous said...

Why should they fight for diabetics? If anyone found a cure, imagine how much money the testing suppliers would loose, the pharmacutical companies, the doctors. Do you really think anyone cares, if the money supply stops. After all it is treatable.

Anonymous said...

I know you are aware—but Lilly makes many more pharmaceuticals than just insulin, and I expect this is reflected in their increased expenditure over Novo’s exclusive interest in insulin products. You might also consider that spending money to delay generics and increase coverage-time for patented products has a hidden agenda whereby a new product (in this case, analog insulin) could actually reach the marketplace with approval by the FDA BEFORE it ever has a U.S. patent. Patent-pending provides a ‘black hole’ of coverage whereby the company can actually receive all the protection of a U.S. patent while not letting competitors what their ‘new product’ is really all about. This provides several years’ advantage in the marketplace with this sort of strategy.
--Brent