Keeping Track Of K Street Lobbyists

Drugmakers have found two more ways to make friends among the newly emboldened Democrats on Capitol Hill, Jeff Birnbaum of The Washington Post points out this week.

PhRMA helped launch a new organization, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, and the group’s executive director is Kenneth E. Thorpe, a health aide in the Clinton administration.

And PhRMA’s Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association, a group that plays up the common interests of drugmakers and unions, has also added several labor-connected Democrats to lobby Congress.

The contract hires include former congressman Ron Klink, a Pennsylvania Democrat; former mineworkers union lobbyist Kristin Leary; former airline pilots association lobbyist Gerald E. Baker; former operating engineers union lobbyist John J. Flynn; and Michael L. Tiner, who has lobbied for the Teamsters, the building trades, and the food and commercial workers unions.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that the National Venture Capital Association, whose members include Novartis, has hired Goodwin Procter to lobby the FDA on reform issues.

Source: The Washington Post