Author: condor

Updating — The Issues And Legislation Upon Which Pfizer Lobbied, In Q3 2022 — Spending Over $3.25 Million.

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With the month almost gone, we will take a quiet Saturday night (before a fun-filled Monday night!), to set out what all Pfizer spent its lobby budget on this past quarter.

It did (as it almost always does) outspend Merck but was dwarfed by Amazon. . . and ran neck in neck with Amgen this quarter. Again, odd that more than $3.25 million was spent, right into the teeth of the mid-terms — when Congress-critters won’t really do much of anything remotely risky… except campaign. The voters generally don’t love PhRMA’s “price protection” efforts, so House members of both parties tend to go into hiding on legislative jaw-boning — at least in public — until the November election results are in. Here’s the run-down, in any event:

…Drug Pricing [Generally]; Support of Biosimilars; Out-of-Pocket Costs; Rebate Reform; Vaccine Infrastructure/HR 3656 Excise Tax- S.3087; Antimicrobial Resistance/HR 3932/PASTEUR Act; COVID Relief Package/Appropriations; PDUFA….

Medicare Part D support for access to treatments for obesity; Coverage Gap; Rebate Reform; Out-of-Pocket Costs; Government Negotiation in Medicare….

Comprehensive Corporate Tax Reform; International Tax Reform; OECD Profit Allocation; U.S. Manufacturing Credits; Build Back Better Act; Minimum Tax….

NAFTA/USMCA; Foreign Market Access issues (including IPR); International Supply Chain/Buy America — harmonize international drug manufacturing standards; Global Access to Medicines….

TRIPS Waiver; General IP Issues; Bayh-Dole March-In Rights….

Now you know — onward, to goblins and ghosties, Monday night!

नमस्ते

Finally! This Week, The Hate-Filled Michelle Malkin’s 15 Minutes… Are Over: After Two Decades…

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…And the most delicious irony of it all… is that her own frothy “far right” war-lords… were the ones who just this week… sent her into internal exile, in Manitou Springs Canyon.

She expressly just said so.

She chose to offend a big ego or two (Tucker Carlson, and later… Sean Hannity). But she always — always! — was a faithful stenographer for the lies of the far right, espousing religion as state good, virulent hatred (after 9/11) for all non-X-ians in the US (having written in defense of the WWII placement of loyal Japanese Americans in concentration camps, out west — despite her own rather obvious features with ancestors hailing from the Philippines), and a “don’t ever give in, on abortion” stance — even in rape and incest cases. But she is now, duly disappeared.

The powers that run the far right… simply cannot abide her occasional complaints about DC libertarians… on the far right. And they pretend not espouse her open support of white supremacists. But they ALL do so support.

That’s because they too… are funded (to no small degree) by Russian state affiliated oligarchs… and non-US oil-princes… and barons. [But the final straw snapped, in 2020 — when she spoke at a convention set up to be a “harder right” version of CPAC — run by Fuentes, the dyed in the wool Klansman.]

So — good riddance, I say.

Even so… it is richly… droll, that her own team took her off the field, with over a hundred-thousand little needle sticks.

F L A W L E S S.

And yes, we have followed her (albeit more quietly, in the last fifteen years) ever since 2002 — just as with Hinderaker and the boys. So we are happy to see her retire to the red rocks of Colorado Springs and Manitou canyon, permanently.

Out.

“Two-For-One” Special — Late On Friday Night…

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First, Hayward tried to deflect, by painting the whyte whacko who hit Mr. Pelosi in the head with a hammer overnight (fracturing his skull, and requiring emergency surgery)… as a Canadian hippie — of some sort. Right. Preposterous.

While he was born in Canada, he’s been in the Bay Area for two decades. And while mental illness looks to be a contributing problem here, he had posted dozens of 01.06.21 conspiracy stories, stolen 2020 election lies and much other Trumper approved garbage on his Facebook page (since removed). Updated: he also posted in favor of QAnon theories. Most sane people call those… lies.

So again, Hayward tells outright lies. Lies designed to blame liberals for the attempted murder.

No, Stevie — if this guy claims anyone, he claims “you hard right people” — that is, this one’s on Tangerine (and you three). You’ve created it all — with approving talk of Civil War 2.0, as well.

Then, in perhaps a trivial set of lies, by comparison, Hinderaker flails about — composing complaints about… Trevor Noah. Whatever.

I guess John’s claim is that Mr. Noah did not offer on-camera interviews, with real live British people, to support the notion that a very conservative Brit with Indian ancestry, one with ~$700 million / ~£700M (Pounds Sterling) of net worth, from his wife’s family wealth… might not be deeply-resonant with the average British immigrant Indian family / experiences.

I think that’s John’s dubious claim. [It is admittedly hard to tell, through all the mental drooling, in his sparse writing — around disjointed pull-quotes, from others.]

But he thinks Noah was calling whyte Brits racists, while I think he was saying this guy… is a mirror image / across the pond Candace Owens, of sorts.

I guess (at bottom) John just wanted to suggest that all US racism comes from “the left”.

Which is of course the opposite of true.

But that’s Hinderaker: thinks guys making the “ Nazi salute” on a southern California overpass (the 405) near LA — with signs supporting Ye’s antisemitism… are… the left?! WTFH?!

Hmmm. Ye’s a Trumper. And no leftist ever uses a Nazi salute… but we know the Proud Boyz and Trump Rally attendees… do.

So both of you morons should… take a seat.

Out.

After Repeated, Virulent Anti-Semitic Monologues, Kanye West Has Been “Removed” From Fulton St. Market Building, Too…

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The history, they say, in Chicago… runs as deep as the river bearing its name.

A river, ironically, whose flow was REVERSED in 1900, about 120 years ago, to take the raw sewage away from the lakefront, and end endemic… cholera, there — for good.

And it turns out that just a stone’s throw west of that river, for nearly a century. . . sat a burgeoning fresh fish and meats market, not exclusively — but predominantly — run by Jewish, Italian, German and Irish business owners, there.

It also happens that near the dawn of the new millennium, Kanye also grew up not far from this same spot. It also happens that — as part of a revitalization of the Fulton Street markets spaces — about a decade ago, a Chicago artist, Jason Peterson, was commissioned by a building owner (who happens to be Jewish), to paint a gray-scale mural honoring Mr. West’s contributions to “The West Side” on the side of his building at Sangamon and near Lake Street.

Yesterday, the artist — in agreement with the owner — both decided to remove just the figure of Ye’s body, leaving the rest of the mural untouched.

By 4 pm local, Mr. West’s image had been stricken. Blacked out. There is video of it all, on Twitter. We concur with the owner and artist — this is how “Never Forget; Never Again” is… actualized:

…FULTON MARKET — An image of Kanye West has been removed from a mural in Fulton Market as the rapper made antisemitic remarks in recent weeks.

The 14-foot mural was created by Chicago-based artist Jason Peterson at the intersection on West Lake Street near North Sangamon Street. It showed a black-and-white image of West over words painted in white and black-and-white stripes.

A video posted to Twitter on Wednesday showed someone painting over West, replacing him with a silhouette….

Much might be said about unmedicated mental illness, here — but at base, this is a story about… choices. Choices to meet hate speech, with silent but eloquent… rebukes. Well done, well… done.

नमस्ते

Timing… They Say, Is “Everything”…

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Less than a week after Elon Musk said he would in fact buy Twitter at the original bargained for price, and close the deal by Halloween 2022… Candace Owens was able to “glamour” Kanye West into agreeing to “buy”… Parler.

Parler (for those who do not know) is a dying far right / hater “social media” waifish competitor site — when compared to Twitter.

Parler has around 40,000 visits a day, on a recent average week. Twitter? Daily Active Users are about 200 million.

And if we believe Elon, he is — as the now controlling shareholder — going to allow far more hard right / haters back on to that 200 million a day set of engaged eyeballs.

What, indeed will be the use of “Truth”, “Gab” or… Parler — if Tangerine is in fact let back on to Twitter? Near zero.

So — Ye paying perhaps $15 million cash — to buy out the Parler shareholders — the Mercers (and likely Candace’s husband, George Farmer) and bail them out of their “money pit”… is simply a grift against her supposed “friend”. A guy clearly suffering an ongoing mental break.

Damn. She struck gold, at the Paris fashion show, by courting Ye, when she learned Elon was closing in on Twitter.

Gotta’ admire the nihilistic hustle though.

Don’t hate the playa’… hate… the game.

H I L A R I O U S.

[I’d put it at under one in ten odds, that Kanye actually does the buyout — there is no written contract yet on price and structure, as I understand it.]

As Promised — Merck (Smallest Of The Three), Through Three Quarters Of ’23… On Lobby Spending Of ~$7.2 Million.

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As we said we would on Sunday, past — we now begin to get to the other two bio-tech / pharmaceutical companies — whose trendlines we’ve been tracking for well-over a decade, here. For the older deets, just search “lobby spend” in the search box, to get back to 2012, at least — and dozens and dozens of posts, for each of these companies (though Amazon is a 2021 and later addition).

In any event, here’s how modestly Merck spent its lobbying funds (only $1.8 million of the amount at right was actually spent in Q3, proper), going into a mid-term election year, in Congress:

…H.R. 3, Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act; H.R. 19 Lower Costs, More Cures Act of 2021; H.R. 1550, PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021; H.R. 2873, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2021; H.R. 3173, Improving Seniors Timely Access to Care Act of 2021; H.R. 3932/S. 2079, Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Up surging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act of 2021; H.R. 4127, Developing an Innovative Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistant Microorganisms (DISARM) Act of 2021; H.R. 5260, Reduced Costs and Continued Cures Act; H.R. 5376, Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, including provisions relating to drug pricing; H.R. 5416, Give Kids a Chance Act; H.R. 5801, Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act; H.R. 6584, Diverse and Equitable Participation in Clinical Trials (DEPICT) Act; H.R. 6963, Accelerated Approval Integrity Act of 2022; H.R. 7559, Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2022; H.R. 7667, Food and Drug Amendments of 2022; S. 1435, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2021; S. 1712, Developing an Innovative Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistant Microorganisms (DISARM) Act of 2019; S. 2774, Pride in Patent Ownership Act; S. 2891, Restoring the America Invents Act; S. 2543 (116th Congress) Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019; S. 1895 (116th Congress) Lower Health Care Costs Act; S. 4348, Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA) Act of 2022

Issues relating to 340B program integrity; 340B of the Public Health Services Act; 340B policy; 340B issues; 340B drug pricing program; Drug pricing; Drug Pricing reforms – international reference prices and government price setting; Anti-microbial Resistance; Vaccines; COVID-19 vaccines; COVID-19 therapeutics coverage issues; COVID-19 Pandemic response; Cost and value of medicines; Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunization; Vaccines catch up; Vaccine provisions; Vaccine Issues, including return to care access, and pandemic-related policy; Package inserts, labeling issues, and E-Labeling authorization legislation; Pharmaceutical Supply Channel Isssues; Prescription Drug User Fees Act (P.L. 102-571); Prescription drug cost-sharing; Accelerated approval reform; Food and Drug
Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA); Executive Order 13937, Access to Affordable Life-Saving Medications; FY-2023 Budget and Appropriations Legislation; Intellectual property protection; WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement; Animal Health; Animal Health Technology Issues; One Health Issues; Rural Broadband Issues; General pharmaceutical issues; Farm Bill 2023; Animal Drug User Fee Act 2023….

H.R. 5376, Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, including provisions relating to budget reconciliation tax provisions

Issues related to, Tax reform and tax policy, generally; Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-97); Tax provisions of Budget Reconciliation….

Now you know… out, smiling — ever… smiling… at memories of an entirely unbothered sauntering wild turkey or three, in the southern wood — exactly eight years on, this Sunday.

नमस्ते

Q3 2022: Every Business Line Is Hitting On All Cylinders, At Merck — Except Perhaps Animal Health.

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To be sure, Animal Health is largely a “nice to have” in Merck’s total results (and could be spun off, at any time — if need be), and it did provide some insulation — during the sharpest teeth of the COVID-19 induced non-emergency procedure shut-downs at most US and EU hospitals. But the relative slowing in Animal Health is really no worry, since Keytruda® alone is set to be a $20 billion a year franchise this year.

And the HPV vaccine franchise branded as Gardasil® posted significantly better Q3 2022 sales than most models predicted. That is likely due to the fact that the EU government purchasers have now topped the tank off, on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, and are adding back to draw downs, on other vaccines, like the one used to prevent most strains of HPV. Demographic data out of Europe would suggest that younger and younger people are also opting to get that jab, as well (expanding the pool).

Here’s some more local color, from BioPharmaDive, this morning:

…Sales [for juggernaut pembrolizumab] continue to grow, too, reaching $5.4 billion in the three months between July and September, according to third quarter earnings figures released by Merck on Thursday. The company also raised its revenue guidance for the full year to between $58.5 billion and $59 billion, as third quarter sales surpassed Wall Street expectations. [Gardasil sales beat expectations, as well — driven by EU governmental payors’ purchasing contracts, as COVID-19 vaccine stocks are largely fully replenished.]

Merck’s business is executing well, wrote Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat in a Thursday note to clients, and will likely mean Wall Street raises its estimates [shortly, for] Merck’s [next year] revenues….

Now you know — and though I am not long in significant amounts in this company, perhaps I should once again… be. Now onward, grinning into a non-Mississippi / Oxford weekend, due to a few last minute changes of circumstance (will do All Souls Eve here — with those baby girls!).

नमस्ते

Still Cannot Verify This Item — But Maybe My Readers… Can… Who IS He?!

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If the claim is that this never happened, I’ll listen.

I don’t use FB — (so even if it hadn’t been taken down, I could not see it to verify) but it all supposedly went down over there. The claim is that the guy is in Arizona, as the on-campus president at some college Republican organization.

The guy who asked him “what’s up with the n-word in the picture…” though has been verified on Twitter, as having been part of this convo….

[It is deeply, and profoundly… sad — to me at least, that Candace has remained silent about it — neither debunking it as a photo-shop, or excoriating the whyte boyz speaking here.]

Any comments, Hinderaker, Hayward or Johnson?

I’ll not wait up.

Out.

Merck Hit With ~$38.5 Million Antitrust Violation/Fine In Spain… And Davis Now Chairman, Too…

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Just a bit of immaterial housekeeping here, tonight — as the amount of the fines / damages in Spain are definitively immaterial to Merck.

But it was for allegedly anti-competitive behaviors, in keeping other contraceptive ring manufacturers at bay inside the country — all aimed at keeping selling prices high (on the legacy Organon products). Here is the latest, from FiercePharma:

…Merck has been hit with a fine in Spain for alleged anti-competitive practices. The Spanish antitrust watchdog National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) has docked the New Jersey pharma giant 39 million euros ($38.45 million) for hindering a generic version of its NuvaRing contraceptive device.

The agency said that Merck used deceptive practices in preventing Insud Pharma of Spain from marketing its device. The U.S. company also obtained a court order that barred Insud from manufacturing its generic in Spain, the CNMC said, which effectively prevented Insud from selling the device anywhere in the world.

…Merck said it disagrees with the ruling and is considering options including an appeal….

The case dates to 2018 when… [regulators said Merck was abusing the global patent processes] “in order to delay and hinder the entry into the market of third-party competitors in Spain….”

Oh — and Mr. Davis — a competent (if uninspiring, and non-charismatic) leader… has become the Chairman, as well — with Mr. Frazier’s final curtain call effective December 1, 2022. Now you know… smiling.

नमस्ते

Today’s “Doddering Old Fool” Edition: Steve Hayward — Cuban Missiles Edition.

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It is rather remarkable, how these three old guys’ faculties have… deteriorated, and even… accelerated, toward the abyss, since the time of Tangerine (2017-’21).

Today’s installment finds Hayward “warning” us all (now more than 60 years on)… that Soviet Russia “wanted us” to see the missiles in Cuba.

And…? So what?

So — in this telling… I guess we should NOT have bothered to have them removed.

“Just leave nukes on Florida’s doorstep!” — but his oh-so-smart frothy hard righters will have “owned” the Soviets. Or sumpthin’.

This whole idea — very common among Tangerine acolytes, BTW — that they are smartest… when they figure out a usually-mythical purported “why” someone acts in a certain way, and then they go… do the opposite… this, this…
Is, in fact — just… creeping, crotchety old… senility.

The choice in Cuba was a hot war to remove the missiles, or make some policy trades.

And how idiotic is it — that six decades later, he wants to armchair quarterback that set of policy trade-offs (without also critically considering the far more important, on a global scale — and more recent — debacles that were Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative, or Tangerine’s “Space Force”?!)????

Just… stinkingly stupid, that. Mr. Obama had the right idea — to bring Cuba into the western world, as a commercial matter… and wean it from the Russian influence.

But Tangerine — wrongly bent on reciting last century’s shibboleths… and thus, undid it all — just like Hayward and Hinderaker so believe in 1890s-era foreign policy “ideas”.

Y I K E S….