Finneran set for new post amid probe

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is preparing to hire House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran even though a key confidant of his said yesterday that Finneran has received no official confirmation that federal prosecutors have closed a perjury investigation that began earlier this year.

Finneran, who is expected to step down as soon as today to take the job as president of the industry group, has been operating under a cloud since FBI agents subpoenaed House records and computer hard drives in March and later interviewed lawmakers. Prosecutors were trying to determine whether Finneran lied under oath in a lawsuit challenging redrawn legislative districts when he denied involvement in redistricting.

Finneran allies are confident the investigation has all but ended, but one confidant said yesterday that prosecutors have not told Finneran or sent a letter to the speaker or his lawyer, Richard Egbert, that they have dropped the case.

In high-profile cases involving public officials, federal prosecutors have been known to announce that an investigation is ending without charges. In 1989, for example, Jeremiah T. O'Sullivan, then US attorney, announced there was not sufficient evidence to indict then-Senate President William Bulger after a 2-year probe into Bulger's role in the 75 State Street real estate development.

The investigation of Finneran's statements created a flurry of activity in the winter and spring, including the subpoena of records from the Joint Committee on Redistricting, and interviews with several lawmakers who had talked in detail with Finneran about the committee's work. But the probe appears to have quieted down in recent months, with no public sign that investigators have sought more records or interviews.

Vicki Greene, a spokeswomen for the biotechnology council, declined to comment yesterday about whether the issue of the federal investigation had been part of negotiations over Finneran's hiring. The US Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment, nor could Finneran. Since the probe began, he has refused to comment on the investigation, referring all questions to his lawyer. Egbert could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Lawmakers and lobbyists say the biotechnology council may have significantly strengthened its hand on Beacon Hill by landing an influential player who is a well-known opponent of controls on drug prices and importing drugs from Canada.

"Speaker Finneran will be an effective voice for the big pharmaceutical interests who call the shots at the Mass. biotech council," said state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, the Cambridge Democrat who is vice chair of the Health Care Committee.

But Barrios quickly added that senior citizens' demand for price controls is growing. "I don't believe anyone will be able to stop the momentum building for the government to rein in prescription-drug costs."

The biotechnology council, founded in 1985, represents companies, academic institutions, and organizations. Its members include Massachusetts-based biotechnology companies as well as out-of-state companies with an interest in the Bay State's fast-growing biotech industry. Financed by dues from the companies, it has a budget of $4 million.

In Finneran, the biotech council would get a veteran tactician whose knowledge of the Legislature and its inner workings is unequaled. Finneran has been on Beacon Hill since 1979. In his eight years as speaker, he has maintained an iron grip on the House, employing his mastery of arcane legislative rules to bolster bills he supports and bury those he opposes. In a largely anonymous body, he is well known from the Cape to the Berkshires.

Leading members of the biotech council have been reluctant to comment on Finneran's possible arrival until it is confirmed. But last April in an interview with the Globe, Una S. Ryan, chief executive of Needham vaccine developer Avant Immunotherapies Inc., who chairs the council, said the group was "looking for people with a lot of clout and recognition."

On several key issues, Finneran has used his power to the biotech industry's advantage. In the April interview, Ryan described drug reimportation and pricing as the industry's "most urgent" issues. Finneran has defended the industry on both issues, presenting the industry argument that government action to sharply reduce drug prices would prompt many biotech firms to decamp for friendlier states.

"I think it's fitting: He's been representing the biotech industry's interests for the last eight years as speaker, instead of the interests of ordinary citizens," said Jack Boesen, executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council. "If this is true, at least he'll be paid by them directly."

Boesen said Finneran has been instrumental in blocking a comprehensive drug bill that would, among other things, require state agencies to buy drugs in bulk to hold down costs.

Finneran differs from the industry on stem-cell research. A devout Catholic, he agrees with social conservatives who say that stem-cell research, which usually involves the use of cells from human embryos, violates the sanctity of life. He has repeatedly blocked efforts by Senate President Robert E. Travaglini to pass a measure explicitly expressing the Bay State's support for such research.

But to most of the members of the biotech council, the stem-cell issue is far less important than pricing, especially since Travaglini's measure would not provide money for research. As the council has grown -- it now has more than 400 members, up from 80 in the early 1990s -- its membership has shifted from small research firms to larger companies with drugs now in the marketplace. To these larger players, pricing issues are paramount.

By luring Finneran away from Beacon Hill, the council not only gains a powerful ally, one lawmaker said yesterday, it removes one major legislative impediment to the stem-cell measure, and his new role would probably require him to quiet his personal opposition to the research. Another lobbyist pointed out that the argument works the other way, too: If Finneran is working for the biotech council, he is no longer in a position to block unfriendly drug pricing measures from the inside.

Finneran will be prohibited from lobbying his former colleagues for a year, said Secretary of State William Galvin. His new salary has not been reported.

The probe was prompted after a three-judge federal panel, which heard the case and decided in favor of the plaintiffs, issued a decision early this year that included a footnote saying they doubted the veracity of Finneran's claim assertion that he had not been involved in the decisions of the redistricting committee. Within several weeks, FBI agents appeared at the State House with grand jury subpoenas for seeking records.

Jenna Russell of the Globe staff contributed to this report.