Well, he isn’t a former member of Congress. Instead, the PhRMA board chose a different kind of insider - John Castellani, who spent the past nine years as chief executive of the Business Roundtable, the pro-business lobbying group that is chock full of chief executives.

The move comes several months after Billy Tauzin resigned amid bickering over the health care reform deal he orchestrated with the White House. Tauzin, a former Congressman, argued that pursuing a bipartisan approach to the issue - and the Obama administration - was likely to yield more benefits. But that alienated some PhRMA members, many of whom have traditionally backed Republicans (back story).

By tapping Castellani, PhRMA gets a known quantity who understands what chief executives want and the power of lobbying. In this year’s first quarter, for instance, PhRMA spent more than $7 million, while the Business Roundtable spent $2.34 million. Before joining the Business Roundtable, Castellani worked at Tenneco, the National Association of Manufacturers and TRW. He began his career as an environmental scientist at General Electric (here’s the PhRMA statement).