Drug Bill Demonstrates Lobby's Pull

The bill leaves intact three provisions of the 2003 law that industry analysts agree played a more direct role in boosting pharmaceutical profits. These include a controversial ban on the importation of cheaper medicines from Canada, a provision that forces roughly 7 million Medicaid patients to buy drugs that are not subject to price limitations, and provisions requiring private insurance plans to remain small and numerous, which dilutes their leverage in price negotiations with drugmakers.

Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.), a registered pharmacist, lined up more than 170 House Democrats last year to support a Medicare-run drug plan meant to force sharply lower prices, and he said the House leadership considered seeking it now but set it aside. "It was primarily a judgment call from the speaker, to keep everybody on board," Berry said. Pelosi aides confirmed the account.

The drug industry lobbying effort started to tilt Democratic as soon as it was clear that Democrats were headed for victory in the midterm elections. The industry is working "to expand areas of contact, develop relationships with those who are in charge," said former senator John Breaux (D-La.), a lobbyist for the industry.

The political action committee of the drug company Amgen gave Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, $8,500 during the 2006 election cycle, amounting to three-quarters of all its donations to him over the past decade. In the Senate, GlaxoSmithKline's PAC contributed $8,000 during the cycle to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the new Budget Committee chairman. That is more than the $6,000 total that the PAC had given to Conrad since 1997.

Helping lead the industry's charge is Breaux, the former senator, who is one of only two Democrats who played a role in drafting the 2003 bill. He said he plans to hopscotch the country holding public seminars on solving health-care problems, often in the states and districts of members of Congress who are pivotal to drug legislation. It is part of a program, called Ceasefire on Health Care, that is bankrolled by the drug company Pfizer and has featured speakers such as Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who both sit on the Finance Committee.

"We need to get access to key Democrats now," said former representative James C. Greenwood (R-Pa.), president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a prominent industry group.

In an effort to bolster its image, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is also sponsoring a program that distributes low- and no-cost drugs to poor people, called the Partnership for Prescription Assistance. A few of the program's beneficiaries have been brought to Washington and given media training so they can promote the program in local news outlets and in television ads.

While the association has told House members that it has "issues" with today's measure, most of its focus will be on the Senate, where lobbyists say they have a better chance of blocking the bill. Democrats control that chamber, 51 to 49, and 60 votes are needed to pass such controversial bills.

Even if the House bill passes both chambers of Congress, supporters take seriously the veto threat by Bush, who got $1.17 million from the industry for his 2004 reelection campaign.

Staff writer Christopher Lee, research database editor Derek Willis and staff researcher Richard S. Drezen contributed to this report.