PhRMA hopes to improve its public image next year and stave off any legislative action and is hiking up fees to afford it. | Getty Drug lobby adds $100M to war chest ahead of pricing battle

The pharmaceutical lobby is requiring member companies to fork over an additional $100 million per year as the industry gears up for a bruising post-election battle over drug prices, POLITICO has learned.

PhRMA's decision to hike membership dues 50 percent will increase the trade group's considerable coffers to more than $300 million per year — a financial advantage it hasn’t enjoyed since 2009, when drug makers came out largely unscathed in Obamacare negotiations. PhRMA is bolstering its war chest as it gears up to spend hundreds of millions on ads pushing back against politicians from both parties who have attacked its members over pricing.


Recent high-profile price increases of life-saving treatments, including EpiPens, have crystallized voter anger over drug costs. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have called for allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries and allowing drug importation from other countries. Recent polling shows a majority of Republican and Democratic voters favor both ideas.

PhRMA’s board voted to raise dues at a meeting this summer, POLITICO reported in August, but it wasn’t clear by how much at the time. To help build its war chest, the board also voted to add new members, including Teva, the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer.

Industry sources say PhRMA chief executive Stephen Ubl, who took over this year, is trying to reverse the perception that the lobby has been weakened since former CEO John Castellani decreased dues following Obamacare’s passage in 2010. Since then, PhRMA has taken in considerably less in dues — around $200 million.

Still, PhRMA has consistently ranked among the biggest lobbying spenders in Washington over the past few years. It spent $11.8 million so far in 2016, making it the fourth-largest lobbying powerhouse.

The industry is also fighting back against a ballot measure in California that would cap how much the state government pays for drugs. Despite funneling $109 million toward defeating the measure and vastly outspending opponents, the pharmaceutical industry appears to be on track to lose in November. A Field/IGS poll last month found the initiative is favored by 50 percent of likely voters and opposed by 16 percent, while 34 percent were still undecided.

PhRMA hopes to improve its public image next year and stave off any legislative action. It plans to run TV ads emphasizing how new drugs could add years to patients’ lives, as well as the years of complex research needed to develop a drug — in other words, a lot of money that must be recouped through high prices.

The lobby has also recently overhauled its Washington office. Steve Tilton, Scott Olsen and Rodger Currie all returned to the organization after stints with the lobby in early 2000s, when Congress approved a prescription drug benefit for Medicare.

A PhRMA spokesman did not confirm details of the group's plan to raise dues and referred POLITICO to Ubl's comments from July. At that time, Ubl said additional resources will be used to "amplify" the organization's message "to policy makers and consumers."