Copyright 1999 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald
December 19, 1999 Sunday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 005
LENGTH: 820 words
HEADLINE:
Gore aides tied to drug firms - Former pal in Congress lobbied
VP for Merck
BYLINE: By Andrew Miga
BODY:
WASHINGTON - Vice President Al Gore often
raps Democratic rival Bill Bradley's drug-industry ties, but
two top Gore campaign advisers serve as high-powered Washington lobbyists for
major pharmaceutical companies.
Former U.S. Rep. Thomas J. Downey, who
is known as "First Friend" to Gore and is one of his closest confidants,
represents drug giant Merck & Co.
Downey's firm
lobbied the vice president this year on a variety of drug
issues, his latest federal lobbying report shows.
The number of contacts
was not reported, however. Downey's firm was paid fees of $ 20,000 by Merck for
the first six months of 1999. Downey received Merck stock options of an
"indeterminate" value beginning in 1993, the lobby records also show.
Downey, one of the capital's most successful lobbyists, with $ 1.8
million in fees and a roster of nearly 50 clients, including computer giant
Microsoft, could not be reached for comment.
A Gore spokesman said
Downey's lobbying hasn't swayed Gore's pro-consumer stance on
drug-related issues.
"Al Gore has fought the
pharmaceutical industry," said Gore campaign press secretary Chris Lehane. "It
actually buttresses our message. Friends of the vice president (who lobby for
drug companies) have had absolutely no impact on the vice
president's fight for lower drug costs against
drug companies."
Gore, in a TV interview earlier this
year, said he had been lobbied a "couple of times" by Downey.
Bay State
native Peter Knight, another longtime Gore confidant and top fund-raiser, was
paid $ 100,000 to lobby for drug giant Schering-Plough during
the first six months of this year, Time magazine recently reported.
Schering-Plough benefited from a lucrative two-year patent
extension granted by the Clinton administration for the company's
well-known Claritin drug.
The Gore campaign's ties to
the drug industry have come into sharper focus as the vice
president and Bradley jockey for advantage on one of the emerging hot-button
issues of the 2000 White House race: reducing spiraling drug
costs for seniors and others.
Gore is seeking to craft an image as a
crusader battling to bring lower-cost generic drugs to market
quicker by curbing patent extensions to pharmaceutical
companies. The drug giants, aided by some members of Gore's
inner circle, have spent millions of dollars lobbying to block such moves.
Bradley has his own vulnerabilities on the issue.
Drug companies are one of the leading industries in New
Jersey, the state Bradley represented for 18 years in the Senate. Bradley often
backed the industry, but he has a record of pro-consumer votes as well.
Both Downey and Knight, the ex-Gore aide whose lucrative lobbying work
has spurred fruitless probes by congressional Republicans, have pledged to
curtail their lobbying during the 2000 race.
Downey, who befriended Gore
in Congress as a freshman in the 1970s and often played basketball with him in
the House gym, lost his Long Island, N.Y., House seat in 1992. He was among
several congressmen who were defeated after the House banking scandal revealed
their check overdrafts.
Gore has been criticized widely for his close
ties to lobbyists. Earlier this year he moved his campaign headquarters from
Washington's K Street lobbying mecca to Nashville, Tenn. The abrupt shakeup was
undertaken partly in hopes of shedding his image as a Beltway insider beholden
to lobbyists and other special interests.
As the presidential race has
unfolded this year, drug pricing has emerged as a prime issue
among the elderly, a potent voting bloc in early contests like New Hampshire and
Iowa.
Some advocacy groups have complained about lucrative
drug-patent extensions that dozens of pharmaceutical companies
have been given by the Clinton administration.
Patent
extensions permit drug companies to squeeze more
profits from popular name-brand drugs, preventing
generic-drug manufacturers from producing cheaper alternatives.
Such extensions boost drug-company
profits and inflate the cost of drugs for the people who often
can't afford the high price of prescription pills, advocates contend.
Bradley's Senate record on the drug issue has come
under fire from the Gore camp. Gore paints Bradley as a defender of
pharmaceutical companies.
"Al Gore has fought to make
drugs more affordable to those who need them," said Lehane.
"Senator Bradley has oftentimes been on the other side. There are clear
differences on this issue, which we won't hesitate to point out."
Bradley took $ 64,150 from drug-industry executives
during the first 10 months of 1999, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics, a nonprofit group that tracks money in politics.
Gore also has
focused on Bradley's co-sponsorship of a bill in 1981, extending by as much as
seven years the patents on major drugs. Gore
opposed the measure, which would have generated a windfall for
drug companies.
The bill eventually died in the House.
LOAD-DATE: December 19, 1999
