Drug industry admits it has been its own worst enemy
Group outlines steps to regain public trust
WASHINGTON -- The new head of the drug industry's main lobbying arm yesterday admitted that its recent image problems have been self-inflicted.
''Look, we've made some mistakes. We're not perfect. But we do an amazing job," said Billy Tauzin, president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He said 70 percent of the world's new drugs are made in America.
''Men and women who work in those facilities get up every morning and all they dream about is getting a new drug approved that will make a difference," Tauzin said.
The former Republican Louisiana congressman said that acknowledging its recent mistakes is the first of many steps the drug industry must take to regain the public's trust. Recent surveys indicate public confidence in drug companies is slipping.
Industry giants are also facing the loss of patents on some popular drugs, meaning generic versions will flood the market and reduce profits.
Tauzin, a cancer survivor, said he began his job as president of the lobbying organization with the intent of making its mission more patient-driven. That includes pushing for affordable insurance with prescription drug coverage, helping drug companies retain the ability to advertise directly to consumers, and pursuing public and private funding for research on therapies for rare disorders.
The big pharmaceutical companies' battered public image suffered another blow last week, during a congressional hearing that painted Merck & Co. as being more inspired by profits than public health when it pitched Vioxx to doctors. Sales of the painkiller have been halted because of an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Tauzin said drug companies will soon voluntarily publish the results of clinical trials for more drugs online at http://clinicalstudyresults.org. The site currently lists trial results for 65 drugs. Merck has completed 70 clinical trials involving 40,000 patients taking Vioxx, according to congressional testimony. Only two of those studies are published on the website.
Tauzin also said the group is finalizing a voluntary code of conduct for drug advertising. It would urge companies to openly discuss drug risks, target the right patients for specific treatments, and encourage patients to have conversations with doctors about prescribed drugs.
He blasted a provision in a proposed bill that would limit advertising of a drug for two years after it receives Food and Drug Administration approval. Such a ''human rights abuse" would move the country closer to the European Union, which bans direct-to-consumer ads, Tauzin said.
''Let's make sure that [advertisements] inform properly, they're serious, that they are targeted to the audience who may, in fact, need them," he said. ''But let's not deny the American public the right to know about a product just approved by the FDA."
Jeannine Kenney, a Consumers Union senior policy analyst, was skeptical that the industry could improve the accuracy of drug advertising on its own.
''As long as the goal of these ads is sales, there is simply no way that the industry can be relied upon to self-police," Kenney said.
The industry's stance on a bill that would loosen restrictions on drug importation has also drawn criticism from Congress.
Tauzin said making prescription drugs more accessible and affordable would help eliminate trips by senior citizens to Canada for less expensive prescription drugs. He lashed out at critics who say the pharmaceutical industry opposes such imports to ensure hefty profits. The real reason is safety, Tauzin said.
Customs agents inspect fewer than 2 percent of the packages crossing the US-Canada border, and some drugs that are said to be made in Canada come from elsewhere, Tauzin said. Others are manufactured in substandard facilities, and many are counterfeit, he said.
Anyone who votes for legislation that allows ''counterfeiters and cheats and people working in dirty labs in Indonesia" to send drugs to the United States ''is going to live with that on their conscience" if deaths result, Tauzin said.
Barry Piatt, spokesman for one of the bill's sponsors, US Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said the legislation would allow importation only of FDA-approved drugs manufactured in FDA-inspected facilities. ''To suggest the drug companies are not trying to protect their profits, first and foremost, is laughable," Piatt said.
Tauzin said he passed up better job offers after he left Congress, in part, to repay a debt to an industry to which he says he owes his life.
''I feel like l'm living on borrowed time," he said. A month ago, he thanked workers at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.'s headquarters in Nutley, N.J., for helping to bring the colorectal cancer drug Avastin to the market.
''They cried. I cried," Tauzin said. ''It was a gushy kind of thing. I wish more Americans had that opportunity to actually meet those people and see them. They're sort of living with a black cloud around them."
Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com. 