By Joseph Walker
The pharmaceutical industry, under fire this election season for
rising drug prices, is ramping up a new advertising campaign
designed to improve its reputation with lawmakers as it lobbies
against any effort to rein in prescription costs.
The sector's largest trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, says it intends to spend
several million dollars this year, and 10% more than in 2015, on
digital, radio and print ads that emphasize the industry's role in
developing new drugs and advancing medical science.
Many of the ads are running on social-media sites like Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter, because PhRMA wants to target federal and
state lawmakers, policy analysts and other political "influencers,"
said Robert Zirkelbach, senior vice president of communications at
PhRMA, which represents nearly three dozen of the largest
drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc. and Amgen Inc.
Websites like Facebook promise to deliver ads to specific
audiences based on characteristics including their location,
occupation and keyword search history.
The campaign is primarily directed at policy makers in
Washington, but ads will also run in some select states that have
yet to be determined, Mr. Zirkelbach said.
Many of the ads feature patients who have been helped by new
medicines, and company scientists working on drug development.
Others highlight the financial assistance companies provide to the
poor and uninsured, through copay assistance and free-drug
programs.
The ads, which don't mention drug prices or potential
legislative changes, are aimed at improving the industry's image
amid calls to have the government play a greater role in
controlling drug prices.
PhRMA wants to "make sure the patient story is front-and-center
in any discussion of the biopharmaceutical industry and drug
costs," Mr. Zirkelbach said.
The campaign comes amid what some congressional aides call a
significant uptick in PhRMA's lobbying activity. The group recently
caught wind that Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) was drafting a letter
urging President Barack Obama to combat rising drug prices, a
congressional aide said. PhRMA "proactively mounted a campaign to
discourage Democrats from signing it," the aide said. The letter
was sent on Feb. 2, and was cosigned by a total of eight Senators,
including seven Democrats and one independent.
Mr. Zirkelbach declined to comment on any increase in PhRMA's
lobbying activity regarding drug pricing, or on whether the group
tried to dissuade Democrats from signing Sen. Franken's letter. In
2015, PhRMA spent $18.45 million lobbying federal officials, up 11%
from 2014, and the ninth-largest sum of any organization, according
to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Advocates for bringing down drug prices have been emboldened by
continued scrutiny of rising drug costs, including criticism by
presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D.,
Vt.), and Donald Trump.
"There's never been a time when this issue was as red hot as it
is right now," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS
Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit group that operates clinics and
pharmacies for people with AIDS. "We've got major political
candidates and news stories talking everyday about how bad this
industry is."
The group is sponsoring a voter referendum in California that
would require the state to purchase drugs at prices no higher than
what is paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which generally
receives significantly greater discounts than other government
agencies. PhRMA has amassed more than $38 million to fight the
referendum, according to California campaign finance records.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is pushing to get a similar
initiative on the ballot this November in Ohio, a presidential
battleground state that would put an even greater spotlight on drug
prices, Mr. Weinstein said.
As part of the lawmaker-focused ad campaign, PhRMA in late
January began running an online video ad on sites including
CNN.com, featuring a Merck & Co. researcher dressed in a white
lab coat and safety glasses, and two patients. They jointly narrate
the video, saying that "thanks to new treatments, we're fighting
back" against diseases including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's
disease. "Every day brings us closer to a cure, " the Merck
researcher says. Merck declined to comment.
The group is also running radio spots on two stations in
Washington, D.C., including one ad that associates itself with the
Obama administration's plan to fund a "moonshot" research program
to "cure" cancer. "America's biopharmaceutical companies support
this goal and have been at the task for decades," a narrator says
in the radio spot. PhRMA is also running banner ads on health-care
and politics-focused websites and has sponsored email newsletters
published by political news websites Politico, Morning Consult and
Real Clear Politics.
By showing the benefits that drugmakers provide to patients, the
ads also illustrate what is under threat from laws aimed at curbing
the drug industry's profits, Mr. Zirkelbach said.
"These advances you are seeing come out of the biopharmaceutical
industry are at risk," he said.
Celgene Corp. Chief Executive Robert Hugin, a PhRMA board
member, recently said the industry was limiting its response to
pricing criticisms to a relatively small group around the country,
including state and federal lawmakers, and patient advocacy
groups.
"We've identified 7,000 Americans who matter," Mr. Hugin said
during a lunch with reporters in January at the J.P. Morgan
Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. "We're focusing on [people]
in policy positions, talking to patient groups, to fight structural
issues."
The industry is also focusing its discussions with doctors,
think tanks and other stakeholders, a Celgene spokesman said.
At the January lunch, Mr. Hugin said many in the public took a
dim view of drugmakers because of high prescription copays. The
industry can't change the minds of more than 300 million Americans,
he said, so was instead focusing on policy makers.
Write to Joseph Walker at joseph.walker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 07, 2016 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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