McConnell helped Amgen delay price limits on dialysis drug

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, whose public statements usually emphasize the need to cut federal spending on entitlement programs, as they did in Lexington Friday, apparently passed up an opportunity to rein in Medicare spending when he signed off on a big favor for a significant campaign contributor in the fiscal-cliff deal.

The deal delayed for two years price controls on a class of drugs including Sensipar, used by kidney-dialysis patients and manufactured by Amgen, "the world's largest biotechnology firm," Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack of The New York Times reported Jan. 19.

"The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts," the Times reported. "But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period. Dennis J. Cotter, who studies the cost and efficacy of dialysis drugs, told the newspaper, “Everybody is carving out their own turf and getting it protected, and we pass the bill on to the taxpayer.”

McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said the senator did not push for the provision. The Times story did not focus on McConnell, saying "Supporters of the delay, primarily leaders of the Senate Finance Committee who have long benefited from Amgen’s political largess, said it was necessary to allow regulators to prepare properly for the pricing change." And it noted the firm "also has worked hard to build close ties with the Obama administration." It did note that former McConnell chief of staff Hunter Bates is among "a small army of 74 lobbyists for Amgen, which was "the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes lobbying and campaign contributions, Amgen's political action committee gave McConnell $7,000 during the 2011-12 election cycle, an amount exceeded by only seven other senators, none of them in the Senate leadership. McConnell was the main negotiator on the fiscal-cliff deal with Vice President Biden.

UPDATE, Jan. 25: Writing on BillMoyers.com and then on Salon, Bill Moyers and Michael Winship report that since 2007, "Amgen employees and its political action committee have contributed $73,000 to Senator McConnell’s campaigns," almost $68,000 to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, and $59,000 to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. They also note that Republican Rep. Richard Hanna R-N.Y., and Democratic Reps. Peter Welch of Vermont and Jim Cooper of Tennessee have introduced a bill "to repeal the half billion-dollar giveaway to Amgen. The story includes Moyers' video interview with Welch.

'Meds for meth' bill is about to become law despite heavy lobbying campaign by pharmaceutical companies

The bill to limit purchases of a popular cold medicine used to make methamphetamine passed the General Assembly today and Gov. Steve Beshear said he would sign it.

The Senate voted 29-8 to approve changes the House made in Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Senate Majority Floor Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, left. The bill would require a prescription to buy more than 7.2 grams of pseudoephedrine in a month and 24 grams in a year. "A generic box of pseudoephedrine with 48 pills, each with a 30-milligram dosage, contains 1.44 grams of the medicine," Jack Brammer of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. ""Gel caps and liquid pseudoephedrine would be excluded from the limits in SB 3 because making meth from those forms is considered more difficult."

The bill’s sponsors had wanted lower limits, and initially a prescription for any amount, "but they compromised with opponents who worried about inconveniencing cold and allergy sufferers," Brammer notes. "The pharmaceutical industry has lobbied aggressively against the state requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine at any level," ranking first in reported lobbying expenses without even counting its extensive advertising campaign. The industry apparently viewed Kentucky as a sort of firewall, the absence of which could make passage of similar "meds for meth" bills in other states. Only Oregon and Mississippi now have such legislation.

Health care is top-spending legislative lobby in Kentucky

Kentucky's health-care industry spent about $1.5 million, more than any other industry, to lobby state legislators in  in the first four months of the year.

"Health care spending was led by hospital operators, who spent about $300,000, including Kentucky Hospital Association ($56,000), Norton Healthcare ($44,631), Baptist Healthcare System ($42,800) and St. Elizabeth Healthcare ($28,182)," the Lexington Herald-Leader's Jack Brammer writes, from a report by the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission.

Pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies spent the second highest amount, about $281,000. That includes contributions from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association ($67,333), Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America/PhRMA ($23,362), Amgen ($19,389), Glaxo SmithKline ($18,500), American Pharmacy Cooperative ($18,000) and Pfizer ($15,000).

Other big spenders include the Kentucky Medical Association ($71,415); All Things Good, a Louisville-based chiropractic business ($65,000); Kentucky Optometric Association ($61,604); and Kentucky Academy of Eye Physicians & Surgeons ($26,000).

A total of about $7 million was spent on legislative lobbying in Kentucky in the first four months of 2011. About $6.5 million of that was spent by 660 employers of lobbyists and about $445,000 was spent by lobbyists themselves. The insurance industry, which is often related to the health industry, spent about $354,000. Energy and utility interests like coal and natural gas spent $516,000. Reports filed by employers and legislative agents are compiled on the Legislative Ethics Commission's website. For the Herald-Leader story, go here.

Philip Morris's parent company and drug makers spent the most on lobbying the state legislature last year

The two biggest-spending lobbies of the state legislature last year were a tobacco company that opposes a statewide smoking ban and a group of drug makers who oppose a bill to require prescriptions for decongestants used to make methamphetamine.

The biggest spender, dropping $357,433 to lobby the General Assembly, was Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA. Altria is also a significant owner of SABMiller, and alcohol lobbies always have interests in play. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association was the second-biggest spender of 2010, paying $343,377. CHPA represents manufacturers and distributors of non-prescription, over-the-counter medication, who fear a loss of decongestant sales if the anti-meth bill becomes law.

All told, companies and advocacy groups spent $16.65 million lobbying the General Assembly last year, down about 3 percent from the last long session, in 2008. That session occurred before the economic recession, and the amount spent in 2010 on receptions, meals and events dropped significantly — by 24 percent — from 2008. In 2009, when a short session was held, about $15.3 million was spent on lobbying.

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which spent the most on lobbying in 2010, ranked third with spending of $211,935. University Health Care, which operates the Passport Health Plan, was fourth with $190,840. Passport came under fire last year after state Auditor Crit Luallen uncovered unnecessary spending on travel and entertainment, inflated salaries and a lack of oversight. After that review "and a change in management, UHC reduced its lobbying presence in the State Capitol from 13 lobbyists in 2010 to two lobbyists in 2011," says the January edition of Ethics Reporter, the monthly publication of the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. (Read more)

The other organizations and businesses that spent more than $100,000 on lobbying last year are: Kentucky Medical Association ($133,274); Houchens Industries, a Bowling Green conglomerate ($132,000); the Kentucky Retail Federation ($127,803); the Keeneland Association ($121,661); the Kentucky Hospital Association ($120,113); CSX Corp. ($116,405); Kentucky Farm Bureau ($109,373); the Kentucky Justice Association, plaintiffs' lawyers ($105,543); Kentucky Education Association, teachers ($105,353); the Home Builders Association of Kentucky ($103,437); and Res-Care Inc., which operates residential programs for the disabled ($100,289).

To read a report from the Lexington Herald-Leader on the lobby spending, click here.