by Mike Memoli
The top pharmaceutical group has named John Castellani, most recently president of the Business Roundtable, as it's new president and CEO, effective September 1. He replaces Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana Congressman who held one of the most high-profile lobbying posts in Washington for five years.
In Castellani, PhRMA chooses someone who did not attack the health care legislation debated and passed by Congress in the past year. In fact, Castellani had participated in a White House kickoff summit on health care. He also warned that the partisanship surrounding the debate could threaten the any benefits from the law after it was signed.
"My greatest fear is on the verge of being realized and that is the highly-charged political environment surrounding health care reform will interfere with the monumental task of implementation," he wrote at the Business Roundtable's blog.
"His experience in coalition building and strong reputation of working across the political divide set him apart," David Brennan, AstraZeneca's CEO and the head of PhRMA's search committee, said in a release announcing the choice.
Comments
(First - this is the REAL Steve Lobber, not the fake, low class imposter that has been using my name and others, to post his leftist, cut and paste, rants.)
It seems PhRMA may be looking ahead, past the fall elections, in selecting John Castellani. According to Open Secrets, he has been primarily a GOP donor for years (although, he did donate to Ben Nelson's campaign). From his posted bio from Business Roundtable, he "played vital roles in the adoption of long-awaited civil justice reform legislation in 2005, approval of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, and enactment of critically important legislation to lower tax rates and slash taxes on dividends in 2003. He also has been a leader of the coalition working in support of Social Security reform. Other significant areas of leadership for Castellani and the Roundtable include passage of bilateral free trade agreements with partners including Australia, Chile and Morocco; passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance reforms; organizing the Partnership for Disaster Response to improve the flow of private sector resources, services and staff following a major disaster; and development of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, a first-of-its-kind business ethics center designed to renew and enhance the link between ethical behavior and business practices."
So, maybe the group sees a change in direction for the ill-fated Obamacare legislation and wants someone with Castellani's knowledge and reputation to help position the group for the future.
Posted by: slobber | July 13, 2010 1:34 PM
Support For Health Care Reforms Continues To Rise, And The Implementation Of Popular Measures Will Only Aid And Abet That Process.
But hey, how's that whole repeal thingie going, Republicans? Hopefully you'll continue to go all in on that.... along with the pathetically small % of the public (the low IQ Republican base nuts) that actually agree with you.
"A majority of Americans express familiarity with a wide range of provisions of the new health reform law. Among the most widely recognized benefits are the subsidies (72 percent recognize these are included in the law), the provisions requiring guaranteed issue (70 percent), and the ability to keep adult children on their parents’ insurance policy until their midtwenties (69 percent). Also widely acknowledged are the major new mandates and penalties for individuals (67 percent) and employers (70 percent). The only listed item that fewer than half the public recognizes as being in the law is the gender parity provision, which prohibits insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men (48 percent)."
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8082.cfm
Posted by: Rob | July 13, 2010 4:44 PM
Tauzin served the democrats, but not the country, well when he got Big Pharma to rollover for ObamaCare.
I wonder if Castellani will continue pumping big money into Harry Reid's campaign. YTD thru May 31, old Harry had rec'd $154K from Pharma PACs
Posted by: Terry | July 13, 2010 8:39 PM
Yes, we should all trust Big Pharma companies because if they ever did anything wrong, our free market capitalistic economy would provide the punishment, right?
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[quote]
During one week in June Pfizer:
1) agreed to pull its 10-year-old leukemia drug Mylotarg from the market because it caused more, not less patient deaths
2) Suspended pediatric trials of Geodon two months after the FDA said children were being overdosed
3) Suspended trials of tanezumab, an osteoarthritis pain drug, because patients got worse not better, some needing joint replacements (pattern, anyone?)
4) Was investigated by the House for off-label marketing of kidney transplant drug Rapamune and targeting African-Americans
5) Saw a researcher who helped established its Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica as effective pain meds, Scott S Reuben, MD, trotted off to prison for research fraud
6) was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield to recoup money it overpaid for Bextra and other drugs
7) received a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requesting its whistleblower policy
8) had its appeal to end lawsuits by Nigerian families who accuse it of illegal trials of the antibiotic Trovan in which 11 children died, rejected by the Supreme Court.
[/quote]
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source: http://www.alternet.org/story/147467/pfizer%3A_the_drug_giant_that_makes_bank_from_drugs_that_can_kill_you/
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I wonder why NONE of this has appeared on Fox News?
Posted by: BC | July 14, 2010 10:12 AM
Before CommonSense,
I guess your post just shows that democrats will crawl in bed with anyone to pass their takeover of health care.
Posted by: Terry | July 14, 2010 9:01 PM