The American Association of Diabetes Educators has spent big bucks this year ensuring its point of view gets across to our representatives in the federal government. The AADE spent $375,000 on lobbying in just the first half of 2007, according to a Senate disclosure form that has been picked up by the media. The law requires that such disclosures be made public. Members of the organization include big Pharma names like Eli Lilly, Novartis and Merck.The AADE is, obviously, a member organization for diabetes educators, with advocacy in Washington - for professionals and patients - coming as an additional service. The government-run site Healthfinder lists more about the AADE if you're interested. Given the amount of money involved, I'm surprised how little attention this has attracted on the Web. Many news services have featured the disclosure, but only in brief. What I'd like to know is: what issues were the AADE lobbying for and against?
1. You ask an excellent question: just what issues were the AADE lobbying for and against? Truthfully, I suspect that a fair amount is undoubtedly to fight the "Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act of 2007" (S. 623/H.R. 1038), a bill now in Congress legislation which would open the doors to generic competition in biopharmaceuticals (although truth be told, generic insulin is already permitted today because its grandfathered as a small-molecule drug under the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act but because the FDA has not outlined procedures for generic manufacturers to obtain approvals, none have yet emerged). BIO, another organization funded almost exclusively by the drug industry, is lobbying hard against the bill to make generic manufacturers have to go through full-scale clinical trials, even while they do not have to undergo them in order to change their own manufacturing process.
I suspect the other agenda items include increased funding for diabetes treatment and prevention, but the Federal government funds relatively little of either, largely funding basic research instead.
Posted at 8:54PM on Aug 31st 2007 by Scott