Big Pharma: Stuck Between the Hammer and the Gavel
By Adam Lass
In this article
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is looking to hold the reauthorization of Food and Drug Administration funding hostage to stricter drug safety measures.
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee members discussed similar legislation, and even Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley are calling the FDA's relationship with the drug industry “too cozy.”
WOW readers are already short two “Big Pharma” players. Both enjoyed big run ups off profit news prior to this new crack down. But those halcyon days are now over and both positions are priced at substantial discounts for new readers looking to get on board.
Big Pharma: Stuck Between the Hammer and the Gavel
It was slow in coming (and I'm sure that in certain K Street corner offices, they would just as soon it never came), but it is finally here.
I am speaking about the Democrats on Capitol Hill going after the big drug companies. The sides were drawn up years ago, with semi-official Democrats -- like then-First Lady Hillary Clinton proposing universal health care -- and the big trade associations carpet-bombing the Bush 2 campaign with cash bunker busters.
The action stepped up with Tom Delay holding open the voting on Bush's drugs-for-seniors plan (with its infamous “no-help donut” for users who are actually still alive after the first year or so) into the wee hours of the morning so that he could arm twist the required number of votes.
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Once control of the Hill shifted back to the Democrats in the mid-term elections, aficionados of this clown show made fairly certain that a revenge attack on “Big Medicine” was coming down the pike.
And finally, the first salvo has been fired: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is looking to hold the reauthorization of Food and Drug Administration funding hostage to stricter drug safety measures.
The original Prescription Drug User Fee Act (first authorized some 15 years ago) expires on September 30. Its drug company fees are a major source of funding for the safety screenings and drug approvals. At the time, Big Pharma tolerated this annoyance because the FDA simultaneously rolled over, vastly accelerating product approval from some 30 months to a mere six months.
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Now, Congress wants to reallocate $150 million to independently monitor stuff like nasty side effects and drug deaths, rather than simply accept the companies' word that everything is hunky-dory. The FDA would also be given more authority regarding drug ads, and has been admonished to keep financially-interested doctors off of product approval panels.
And this is only the beginning. The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee members discussed similar legislation, and even Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley are calling the FDA's relationship with the drug industry “too cozy,” and warning that this bill “doesn't shake up the status quo enough… It'd be a terrible shame if senators missed the opportunity this year to really do something to improve the FDA. A mountain of evidence has piled up about the need to take dramatic action.”
WaveStrength Options Weekly readers are already short two “Big Pharma” players. Both enjoyed big run-ups from profit news prior to this new crack down. But those halcyon days are now over and both positions are priced at substantial discounts for new readers looking to get on board.
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Adam Lass is the founder and manager of the WaveStrength Group, and is a contributing editor for Taipan Financial News. As the creator of WaveStrength's proprietary analysis system, Adam's expertise has shaped a franchise of successful investment newsletters and services, including WaveStrength Options Weekly and WaveStrength Apex.
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