The career path from government to industry is well traveled.

The latest to walk down that road is Alex Azar II, who joins the drugmaker as senior vp of corporate communications, reporting to ceo Sid Taurel. Until February, Azar was at Health and Human Services in Washington DC, where he was most recently chief operating officer.

Getting help from someone who understands the FDA and its policies may be a good thing, especially when your company is accused of hiding harmful side effects about a big-selling drug. That would be Zyprexa.

However, it appears Azar was training for his new role for some time. As PharmaGossip has pointed out, Azar was immersed in a White House effort last fall to lobby the UK government on behalf of big drugmakers, which sought unrestricted access to the UK’s National Health Service as part of a package of free market reforms.

At the time, the British press wrote that the White House was “positioning itself behind the giant pharmaceutical firms…which have been piling pressure on the body that approves drugs for use in hospitals and for prescription by general practitioners.” Big pharma was complaining they were being stymied by the UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

That’s when Azar popped up. He reportedly “forced the issue” in meetings in London. He argued that attempts to use rationing to cut soaring drugs bills would stifle innovation. Allowing all new drugs to be used in the NHS would result in the companies “fighting it out” on price, Mr Azar said, which would drive the drug bill down. He also made that he favored DTC advertising, which isn’t permitted in the UK.

In comments to one newspaper, Azar said healthcare systems in all wealthy countries were expensive, and costs were increasing at a time when budget constraints were getting more real as the population aged. “On the other side we have to focus on long-term innovation,” he said. “How are we making sure that we don’t take steps on cost containment that are short-sighted and prevent the investment in long-term biomedical research and development and innovation, so that when my kids are senior citizens we have the next generation and next, next, next generation of drugs?”

Meanwhile, the drugmaker also promoted Anne Nobles to chief compliance officer. She’s been with Lilly for 16 years.

Further reading…
Lilly press release;
The Guardian.

Hat tip to Insider.[tags]Alex Azar, Eli Lilly[/tags]