Pfizer Continues To Wildly Outspend, On Lobbying -- For Its Size... Compared To Merck

With Ian C. Read's tenure at Pfizer drawing to an inexorable close, I might conjecture that Pfizer's future (2019 and beyond) lobby-spend. . . may revert to levels last seen around 2007 [back when a clear-eyed and pragmatic lawyer ran Pfizer -- in contrast to Read -- a reactionary (former UK) accountant. . . with some oddly libertarian political philospophies]. His thoughts are odd, inasmuch as he chairs a company in what is almost certainly. . . the most regulated industry on Earth -- all while seeking (what can most charitably be called) vast corporate welfare, from the US government. Smile.

Said another way, I would expect that the spend will still revert to a proportionate increase over Merck's, but proportionate only in step with Pfizer's size advantage, compared to Merck.

We shall see, as ever. But for its part, here is most of what Kenilworth spent in Q4 2018 -- to lobby about:

. . . .340B reforms (no specific bill); Hepatitis C (general education, no specific bill); Vaccine policies (general education, first dollar coverage); antimicrobial resistance (general education); biosimilars (no specific bill); cost and value of medicines (no specific bill); women's health (general education); Affordable Care Act; general pharmaceutical issues (transparency, formulary design, prescription drug coverage); 21st Century Cures Act; Direct to Consumer advertising; Drug pricing. . . .

Medicare Part D (general education, no specific bill); Medicare Part B (general education, reimbursement); Medicaid (no specific bill); Antibiotics/stewardship; Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) demonstration; Drug pricing. . . .

Issues related to Animal Drug User fee Act Reauthorization with conditional approval, Animal health. . . .

Tax reform (no specific bill). . . .

Onward, with a three way comparison between Pfizer, Amgen and Merck now due up at some point tomorrow -- now that all the filings are in to the Senate's disclosure offices. So. . . I'm off, into a dense gray but warm fog -- to find some lobster bisque. . . smiling.

नमस्ते