http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/dem-senators-white-house_n_253502.htmlA senior White House aide told Democratic senators Thursday that the administration did not make a deal with the pharmaceutical lobby that would prevent Congress from using the government's clout to negotiate for lower drug prices, according to three Democratic senators who were in the meeting.
The New York Times had reported on Thursday morning that the White House affirmed that a deal barring price negotiations had been struck.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) asked two top White House aides, David Axelrod and deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina, if the administration had cut such a deal with PhRMA.
"He says there's no deal. I take him at his word," Brown told the Huffington Post.
The drug makers, according to the Times, had agreed to trim $80 billion in costs over ten years and the White House agreed not to go after deeper cuts by negotiating lower drug prices as part of comprehensive health care reform. The paper reported that Messina confirmed the deal on the record.
Brown said the article inspired his question. Both Messina and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) answered.
"Baucus said there was no deal and the White House said there was no deal," said Brown.
Brown added that the answer didn't necessarily mean the White House was contradicting what it told drug makers.
"It contradicts what Billy Tauzin said
told the drug makers, but Billy Tauzin has not always been all that straight with the truth," said Brown, referring to PhRMA's president, a former Republican congressman from Louisiana. Tauzin pushed through the original law that barred the government from negotiating for lower prices. Shortly thereafter, he left to lobby for the drug makers.
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