I read DocLarry's post below, did my 5-minute Google, and found that the IndyStar has an update:
Eli Lilly and Co., along with the rest of the drug industry, is expected to take its first hit under a Democrat-controlled Congress when the House votes today to reduce the cost of drugs for Medicare patients.
Although the measure is expected to easily pass the House, it could face a GOP filibuster in the Senate as well as a presidential veto. But it's just the first fight in what is expected to be a busy year for drug companies in Washington.
"There is no shortage of issues with big potential impact for the industry," Eli Lilly Chief Executive Officer Sidney Taurel told financial analysts at a December meeting in New York.
The drug industry says the move is the equivalent of imposing government price controls that could lead to fewer new drugs and restrictions on drugs available to Medicare patients.Contrast the last sentence quoted above with this from Steve Buyer, R-Ind...if you can:
"This shortsighted meddling will . . . reduce the number of new drugs available and impair the very health of the Americans that the proponents seek to promote," Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., wrote to colleagues this week, urging them to vote against the change.Dick Durbin on Medicare Plan D:
"It was written by the pharmaceutical industry," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. "It took competition out of the program so they could charge higher prices."It will be interesting to see who does not support 'reforming' Medicare Plan D, and correlating that list with amounts of campaign contributions...Rep. Buyer had $72,000 in Pharmaceuticals/Health Products contributions in the '06 election cycle and Sen. Durbin received $24,600, for example.
More debate on the drug plan on C-Span at 9:ooam EST today...
