Actually, This Past Quarter, Lilly Spent Even Less Than Merck -- Lobbying (Despite The Insulin Pricing Battle In Congress)...

Part Two, of the likely five part series on Q1 2024 Lobby-Spend trends, now appears for "Fourth Be With You" day. . . .

Lilly has worked diligently since about mid-2021, to lobby Congress to preserve its right to price the later-gen insulin products (and very aggressively -- on the weight loss ones). . . in any manner it likes, in the US. Some of that has succeeded -- some hasn't. And true enough, all the majors spend less during a presidential election year, as Congress is not likely to move major new initiatives, on either side of the coin during 2024.

Even so, Lilly (and to a lesser degree, Merck) are spending far less than would have been expected, here in Q1 2024. [We gave you some granularity on Rahway on Wednesday, here.] This is what Lilly was working to bend Congressional ears on:

. . .Issues related to intellectual property protection and market access within current trade negotiations. Canada IP; USMCA implementation; Mexico patent linkage; Special 301; Trade talks: US-Japan, US-China, US-EU, US-UK, US-India, and US-Brazil. . . .

Patient protection; Pharmaceutical supply chain issues and shortages; Drug pricing, coverage, value and access; Transparency; Intellectual property; Health insurance accessibility; Implementation of the "Inflation Reduction Act" (HR.5376); Prescription drug approval; Affordable Insulin Now Act (S.954/HR.1488), The INSULIN Act; Policy matters related to Artificial Intelligence in health care. . . .

Intellectual property; 340B Program; Medicare & Medicaid prescription drug reimbursement, coverage and value; Implementation of the "Inflation Reduction Act" (HR.5376); CMS National Coverage Determination on Alzheimer's disease; The INSULIN Act. . . .

Multi-lateral threats to IP and the biopharmaceutical industry; Drug importation; Prescription drug value and access. . . .

Pharmaceutical intellectual property issues. . . .

Implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Domestic manufacturing tax incentives; Expensing of research and development costs; Global minimum tax; Pension and retirement benefit issues. . . .

Hospital discounts; 340B program. . . .

Now you know -- but clearly patent evergreening is top of mind, for insulin products at Lilly, in Carmel, Indiana. Smile -- now let's see that Japanese champ come in No. One, or No. Two -- as an exacta box, with Fierceness? Forever Young!

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