Posted At The Nation
Republicans and their drug company allies are doing everything they can to prevent Americans from accessing cheaper prescription drugs. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has blocked a vote on a bipartisan bill legalizing drug importation from Canada. Last month the Senate Republican Policy Committee maintained that imported drugs--10 million of which entered the US in 2004--"cannot be a viable option." This despite the fact that President Bush's own report on drug re-importation conceded that Canadian imports are safe, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated that legalized importation could "reduce total prescription drug expenditures in the US by about $40 billion" over the next nine years.
As if pumping $759 million into lobbying Congress since 1998--more than any other industry--wasn't enough, big pharma has enlisted "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani to stamp a terror alert on the importation fight. "As the nation tightens its borders against possible future terrorist attacks, it risks undermining security and safety by opening them up to non-FDA prescription drugs," said a Giuliani Partners report released in April. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, the industry's DC lobbying arm, conveniently underwrote the study. If it kills the drug company's profits, it'll kill you too.
High-profile shill for big pharma is just one role among many for Tycoon Rudy and his blossoming security consulting firm. "The client list often reads like the list of witnesses before Congressional committees in some of the highest-profile corporate crises of the last few years," the New York Observor wrote. "Along with Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the Indian Point nuclear plant, they include the manufacturers of the painkiller OxyContin, which had become popular as a recreational drug; the scandal-plagued National Thoroughbred Racing Association; and a pharmaceutical-industry trade group, for which Mr. Giuliani produced a study suggesting that imported prescription drugs may be dangerous."
Add to that list the Houston-based law firm Bracewell & Patterson--remamed Bracewell & Giuliani after Rudy came on board as a partner in March--whose big oil and energy clients have included Enron, ChevronTexaco and the utility lobby. And DNA Applied Sciences, a tech company with a history of securities-related charges, hired Giuliani Partners with "no cash for operations and no customers" USA Today reported. After suffering $35 million in loses between 2002 and 2004, the company gave Giuliani's firm $2 million and 21 million shares worth $10 million at the time. Following the announcement, Applied's stock jumped 268 percent. "It has all the markings of something Giuliani himself would have looked into as US attorney in the old days," said former federal prosecutor Stephen Meagher.
Moreover, Rudy's lavish speaking fees are also starting to raise eyebrows. Last February, the South Carolina Hospital Association booked Giuliani as a speaker, at his usual $100,000 rate. When the tsunami hit South Asia at the same time, the Hospital instead held a fundraiser for the victims. But Rudy came anyway, and pocketed his fee--which organizers later demanded back. He later earned a staggering $230,000 to speak at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation in Adelaide, Australia, for a benefit that raised only $15,000 total.
Is this the post-Mayoral record Rudy plans to run on in '08?
