Uh-Oh, Big French Pharma Linked to US Healthcare Protests

In an almost satirical twist to the healthcare debate, it turns out that Big French Pharma, in the form of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), is now linked to anti-Obamacare protests via lobbying firm DLA Piper.

DLA ex-employee Dick Armey is chairman of Freedomworks, a pressure group that organizes town hall yell-ins. He was just forced to resign from DLA last week as a result of this relationship when Bristol-Myers (BMY) was recently found linked to Freedomworks through DLA as well.

It's doubtful that any fees paid by Sanofi or Bristol to DLA Piper actually funded Freedomworks, but even just the appearance of conflict is enough to cause damage. It will be easy for pharma opponents to make accusations since, for example, on just one Medicare reform issue Bristol Meyers and Sanofi stand to lose over $500 million dollars of revenue.

Due to issues such as the above, DLA and its pharma clients have moved to distance themselves from Mr. Armey ASAP.

New York Times: The drug companies who helped defeat the Clinton administration health care effort 15 years ago have now turned on Mr. Armey, who then was one of their most important Congressional allies. Now, having cut a deal with this administration to limit their share of the costs, the drug companies are on the other side. Foreseeing new profits from the expansion of health coverage, they are spending as much as $150 million on advertisements to support the president’s plan

While New York Times may find Mr. Armey's turn of events suprising, it really isn't.

His forced resignation shows he was never the true ally of Big Pharma, but rather their enemy. Big Government is the real friend of Big Pharma in the long term, as shown by the lack of new, large competitor companies created in the big-firm capitalist economies of continental Europe. For Sanofi-Aventis, the US must be feeling more and more like home.