Pharma lobbying headed for record-breaking 2022, nonprofit says

2022-10-24

生物类似药疫苗

Pharma’s lobbying expenses reached record heights last year — and according to the latest reports, the industry is on track to top those numbers in 2022.

In the first three quarters, pharma companies spent a total of $281 million on lobbying, according to Dan Auble, senior researcher at the nonprofit OpenSecrets. That’s approaching last year’s total of $350 million, making pharma the biggest spender in the health sector.

Some groups saw a decent uptick in spending last quarter, including the industry trade group PhRMA, which spent nearly $7.3 million compared to $6.3 million in Q2. The industry group listed a variety of lobbying issues around patent policy and work on specific bills, including the Pride in Patent Ownership Act and Intellectual Property Violators Accountability and Transparency Act.

PhRMA has also been vocal against Democrats’ drug pricing reforms, arguing that the provisions, which include Medicare negotiations and out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors, would “throw sand in the gears of medical progress.”

“One thing to maybe note is that if the upcoming elections change the balance of power in Congress, that might affect lobbying,” Auble said.

Pharma industry spent a record $389M on US lobbying in 2021, but more is likely coming this year — report

Pfizer spent roughly $3.3 million on lobbying in Q3, down from about $3.5 million in Q2. The company lobbied the House, HHS, FDA, office of the president and OMB on a handful of issues, including vaccine infrastructure, drug pricing, biosimilars and “COVID Relief Package/Appropriations,” according to its Senate report. It also lobbied many of the same targets plus CMS on “Government Negotiation in Medicare.”

“In reality, it’s not a price negotiation because they are forcing their will by implementing a [ 95% ] tax according to previous guidance. That will cost the industry significant, we estimate $270 billion over 10 years,” CEO Albert Bourla said on the company’s Q2 call this summer.

A 'chilling,' 'onerous' and 'historic mistake': Pharma CEOs take their turn blasting drug pricing deal

AbbVie spent $2.37 million last quarter, targeting Congress and the White House on issues such as “drug cost and pricing policy issues,” “patient affordability issues” and “policy proposals relating to clinical trial diversity.” GSK topped out at nearly $1.4 million, on drug pricing, “direct to consumer advertising policy issues,” antimicrobial resistance policy, and other topics.

AstraZeneca, on the other hand, spent significantly less cash on lobbying in Q3, topping out at $910,000 as opposed to nearly $1.3 million in Q2. Its lobbying activities also included work around the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as “general issues related to drug pricing,” reauthorization of the FDA user fees, which Biden signed into law before the end of last month.

Completely clean FDA-industry user fee deal attached to a must-pass government spending bill

Novartis shelled out $850,000, targeting Congress, HHS, the office of the president, CMS, OMB and others on the Inflation Reduction Act, drug pricing, biosimilars and the proposed new NIH agency, to be known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Biden turns to biotech for his inaugural ARPA-H director

CEO Vas Narasimhan said this summer that Democrats’ drug pricing reform has “onerous elements as well, which we think go too far and don’t support long-term innovation.”

The health sector was the biggest industry spender last year, OpenSecrets reported, dishing out a combined $830 million on both federal and state levels. The pharma industry was the top spender in that category — and Auble expects that trend to continue this year.

“If they continue at the pace they have been for the last couple of quarters, which is around $88 million a quarter, if they do that again in the fourth quarter that I would expect we’ll see 2022 exceeding the 2021 totals,” he said.

How much? Pfizer leads top pharma companies' ramped up lobby spending on Congress