The Boston Business Journal reports today, Bay State ranked worst for pharma sales and marketing:

A pharmaceutical trade group has rated Massachusetts the worst state in which to pursue sales and marketing for the industry, in part because of a new law restricting the activities of sales representatives.

The National Association of Pharmaceuticals Sales Representatives said the new law, intended to help contain health care costs, will act to limit research and product-development initiatives and hamper innovation.

As residents of the Bay State, we here at Prescription Access Litigation wonder what we did to deserve this honor.

Now, what horrific restrictions on “research and product-development initiatives” does the new law impose on the industry?

It requires all pharmaceutical companies to disclose payments they make to health care providers that exceed $50. It requires the state Department of Public Health to establish a statewide code of conduct on marketing and gifts to health care providers. And it creates an evidence-based outreach and education program for prescribers.

That’s it. It doesn’t ban anything, prohibit anything, restrict anything. All it does is require disclosure of gifts to doctors. THAT’s what makes Massachusetts the worst state to pursue pharmaceuticalsales and marketing?

The National Association of Pharmaceuticals Sales Representatives must have forgotten all about the $1 billion gift that the taxpayers of this “worst state” just dropped in their lap back in June, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative:

Governor Patrick signing the Mass. Life Sciences Initiative bill

The $1 billion will go to improve the “life sciences” infrastructure in Massachusetts, including tax incentives, grants, fellowships and other programs to promote research and workforce development that will certainly be beneficial to many of the pharmaceutical and biotech companies doing business in the state.

Here the Mass Life Sciences Initiative legislation.

Here’s the text of the bill that imposed the $50 gift disclosure requirement.

Here’s what Health Care for All, a PAL coalition member and key supporter of the legislation, had to say back in September about pharma’s warning threat that drug and biotech companies would leave the state in response to the law:

Do you remember this phrase: “a direct and immediate devastating impact?” That’s from the full-page ad the biotech industry took out trying to convince the Governor to veto the comprehensive quality and cost bill, that included enforcement of the pharmaceutical and device industry’s own voluntary guidelines. You might also remember the letter from GlaxoSmithKline, threatening to leave the state if the law was passed.

Those of us that support the gift ban thought it was an empty threat at the time – particularly in light of the fact that the state had just pledged $1 billion to the industry.

And, it looks like we were right.

Monday, Governor Patrick will join Genzyme officials to open a $125 million science center, part of $250 million cell culture manufacturing facility. On Tuesday, UMass-Lowell will open its fully automated Massachusetts BioManufacturing Center facility. And last week, a study co-sponsored by the UMass Donahue Institute found that 85% of life sciences employers in the state actually plan to expand their in-state operations over the next two years.

But in NAPSR’s world, a modest disclosure requirement warrants a designation as the worst state in the nation, notwithstanding the $1 billion we just ponied up. Talk about ingratitude!

We bring you the third installment of our new feature, PAL Coalition Member Spotlights. In these Spotlights, we introduce you to our coalition members and give you the opportunity to hear from them about the work they do and the pressing concerns of their members.

Health Care For All (HCFA) is the sister organization to Community Catalyst (PAL’s parent organization) and a core member of the Prescription Access Litigation coalition.

We interviewed HCFA’s Consumer Health Policy Coordinator, Lisa Kaplan Howe about HCFA’s work on prescription drugs and their involvement with PAL lawsuits. Enjoy!

PAL: What is the mission of HCFA?

Lisa Kaplan Howe (LKH): HCFA seeks to create a consumer-centered health care system that provides comprehensive, affordable, accessible, culturally competent, high quality care and consumer education for everyone, especially the most vulnerable. We work to achieve this as leaders in public policy, advocacy, education and service to consumers in Massachusetts.

PAL: What is your role at HCFA?

LKH:I am the Consumer Health Policy Coordinator. I am a member of the policy team, and I manage our private market health care policy work and advocacy, including our private insurance and prescription drug work. I coordinate our newest coalition, the Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition, and I work with our health reform coalition, the Affordable Care Today (ACT!!) coalition.

Prescription Reform Coalition Launch at the Massachusetts State House

PAL: How does the high cost of prescription drugs affect your constituency?

LKH:The high cost of prescription drugs impacts all Massachusetts residents. Growing numbers of people rely on medications to maintain their health and, even people who consider themselves generally healthy, may find themselves needing to take medications from time-to-time. The high cost of drugs threatens access to necessary medications and threatens peoples’ financial stability. Even the insured suffer from growing cost-sharing and premiums as a result of the cost of drugs. Massachusetts health reform and the stability of our state budget are also threatened by growing health care costs.

PAL: What is one thing you think should be done to change the way drugs are priced or marketed?

LKH: HCFA and the Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition have focused on ways that the state can take action against inappropriate drug marketing. One of our top priorities is a statewide ban on gifts to physicians.

Studies show that industry gifts inappropriately impact prescribing decisions, lead to unnecessary prescribing of the most expensive drugs instead of lower-cost and equally safe and effective alternatives and drive up the cost of drugs. Each year the pharmaceutical industry spends over $7 billion marketing to physicians. We all pay for the gifts, meals and other inducements they provide at the pharmacy counter. We are excited that our Senate President has introduced comprehensive cost control legislation in MA that includes the nation’s strongest gift ban.

PAL: What does your organization do to educate your members about prescription drug issues?

LKH: We launched the Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition in January. We have been working since then to make sure that our legislators and the general public understands the threat of excessive pharmaceutical marketing.

PAL: Has your organization been a plaintiff in one of PAL’s lawsuits?

LKH: We have been a plaintiff in several PAL lawsuits. (Celebrex, Neurontin anti-trust, OxyContin, Relafen, Tamoxifin, Wellbutrin, Lipitor, and AWP)

PAL: What was that experience like for you/your organization?

LKH: We value the opportunity to take a stand against inappropriate pharmaceutical marketing on behalf of our members and all MA residents. We do most of our work through legislation, and the PAL lawsuits are a great compliment to that work and our mission.

PAL: What are some of the most pressing needs of your members?

LKH: All Massachusetts residents suffer from the rising cost of health care. We are thrilled that since our comprehensive health reform law passed in April 2006, nearly 340,000 MA residents have become newly insured. It is an amazing accomplishment that immeasurably impacts people’s lives. However, we know that there are others who still cannot afford coverage. It will only be possible to ensure the long term success of health reform and to expand coverage to all MA residents if we take steps to fight the rise in all health care costs, including the cost of prescription drugs.

To learn more about Health Care for All, visit their website, and take a look at their blog, A Healthy Blog.

The Prescription Access Litigation coalition has more than 130 organizational members that represent over 13 million individuals. The coalition includes consumer advocacy organizations, senior citizen groups, health care advocacy groups, labor unions, union benefit funds, nonprofit health plans, and others. PAL coalition members join class action lawsuits, help get the word out about new lawsuits and settlements, and participate in advocacy campaigns to curtail runaway drug marketing and unethical drug pricing. If your organization is interested in joining the PAL coalition, learn more here.

Over at A Healthy Blog, our friends at Health Care For All (a member of the Prescription Access Litigation coalition) report today on the fight that is brewing in the Massachusetts legislature over a proposed ban on pharma gifts to physicians. They quote an article from yesterday’s State House News Service:

Pharmaceutical companies are attacking Senate President Therese Murray’s effort to block their firms from providing gifts, meals or trips to doctors, calling it an anti-business policy that would hobble efforts to deliver cutting-edge drugs to patients. In a letter to the chairs of the Legislature’s Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee, executives from Pfizer, Amgen, Abbot Bioresearch Center, Genentech, all of which have facilities in Massachusetts, ripped the gift ban as counter to Beacon Hill’s painstaking efforts to lure the life sciences industry, highlighted by Gov. Deval Patrick’s nearly year-old $1 billion incentives plan headed for legislative approval.

It’s somewhat odd to cast a gifts and lunches to doctors as being on par with a $1 billion state incentive plan — unless perhaps the gifts and trips and meals are worth more than $1 billion to the industry — after all, Massachusetts has dozens of teaching hospitals and a new health care law that means more and more people with health insurance. The prescriptions written as a result of a modest investment in gifts and trips and meals could easily garner more than a billion in new sales.

To learn more about the proposed gift ban, go visit the Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition.

Health Care for All of Massachusetts is one of the most innovative grassroots state health care advocacy organizations in the country, and has always been a core member of the Prescription Access Litigation coalition. Health Care for All has been a plaintiff in numerous PAL lawsuits, including those concerning the prescription drugs Nexium, Buspar, Celebrex, Neurontin, Oxycontin, Relafen, Lipitor and Tamoxifen, and the massive Average Wholesale Price litigation (in which a $125 million settlement was recently announced).

Health Care for All’s Executive Director John McDonough is stepping down, and joining Senator Edward Kennedy’s (D-MA) staff, the Boston Globe reported today (Key player in Mass. health reform joining Kennedy’s staff). Under John’s leadership, Health Care for All was a leader in pushing for universal healthcare in Massachusetts, which resulted in Massachusetts’ ambitious mandatory health insurance plan. John was also the main author of A Healthy Blog.

PAL congratulates John on joining Senator Kennedy’s staff, and Health Care for All for its many accomplishments during John’s tenure.

Here’s the Boston Globe report:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy has tapped a former Massachusetts legislator and prominent health care activist to be his chief adviser on health reform, a move Kennedy’s office said was aimed at developing a universal health care plan after the presidential election.

John McDonough, a former state House member, was a key player in crafting Massachusetts’s mandatory health insurance plan. But McDonough said he will not necessarily advocate such a plan for the nation as a whole.

Senator Hillary Clinton has proposed a federal plan that includes a requirement that Americans purchase health insurance, a mandate she says is necessary to ensuring universal care and lowering healthcare costs. McDonough’s new boss has endorsed Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, whose healthcare plan focuses more on affordability. McDonough said the Bay State plan he helped develop may not be a blueprint for the whole country.

“There’s a lot of [the Massachusetts law] that is applicable to other states and worthy of federal consideration. There is an awful lot that is not. I would make no assumptions about what is portable and what is not,” McDonough said in an interview today.

McDonough, who teaches at the Harvard School of Public Health, is stepping down as executive director of Health Care for All, a citizens’ health advocacy group. He said he was thrilled to become a staffer for Kennedy, with whom he has worked on children’s health insurance and other issues.

“I feel like I’m being recruited for the 2004 Red Sox. I feel honored to be part of his team,” McDonough said.

Kennedy staffers said the Massachusetts senator believes that either Clinton or Obama will win the White House in November, giving Democrats a rare chance to pass a universal healthcare plan that has eluded advocates for decades. Clinton as first lady pushed a healthcare reform proposal, but it was shot down in 1993 by the GOP-controlled Congress.

Democrats are expected to retain control of both chambers of Congress after the elections, and Kennedy staffers believe either Obama or Clinton would be able to push through some kind of health care reform.

“John is one of the most experienced and respected health care experts in the country and I’m delighted that he’s joining us,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Quality, affordable health care for all Americans is one of the central challenges of our time and I’m confident that John will make an enormous difference to that cause.”