Leaving office, but not the fight
Outgoing mayor says drug industry tactics can't go unchallenged
By Christopher Rowland
GLOBE STAFF
Mayor Michael Albano cleaned out his desk at Springfield City Hall yesterday in preparation for giving up his office on Monday, but he loaded boxes with memorabilia and accepted calls from well-wishers, and he made it clear he will remain a thorn in the side of big US drug companies.
Albano burst onto the national media stage In July with his one-of-a-kind program to Import prescription drugs from Canada for city employees, and retirees, launching the money-saving plan even though the Food and Drug Administration said it was illegal.
Now having ridden a wave of publicity for six months, he is stepping down after deciding not to seek election to a fifth term. He is opening his own political consulting and lobbying firm In Springfield, a block from City Hall. He also plans to establish a nonprofit organization to help low-income people get free medications through little-known programs already offered by drug companies. And he said he will testify around the country against the pricing tactics of the US pharmaceutical industry.
"Someone has to take the Industry on." Albano said. "It's clear they have gotten away with quite a bit."
Albano refused in a telephone Interview to identify prospective clients of his lobbying practice, saying he had not signed any deals. He said he door not expect to represent any Canadian pharmacy interests, but he did not rule It out. Broadly, Albano said, he wants to counteract the influence the drug Industry exerts on US and state lawmakers.
"You follow the money, you follow the profits, and you follow the lobbying, and they've been very successful," he said. "You have to give their lobbying team credit for protecting the high profits of the pharmaceutical industry."
He has appearances planned in coming weeks to talk about importing drugs from Canada before state lawmakers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. California legislators have also contacted him about a possible appearance, he said.
Albano said he wants to develop software that would enable the elderly and people with no health insurance to gain access to free drugs. Pharmaceutical companies offer the drugs at no cost to qualified individuals, but the rules for obtaining them are not uniform, and the applications can be complex.
What's more, Albano said, few people in Springfield and surrounding communities know that the industry gives away free drugs, because the industry doesn't publicize it.
"And those who do know about It." be said. "Find it extremely cumbersome. The application is 13 pages for one of them. I can't think of anything that requires 13 pages of an application, whether it is a student loan or a mortgage."
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry lobbying group, defended the distribution system. It estimates that 6.2 million patients received free drugs directly from the industry in 2003, worth more than $2.5 billion. PhRMA offers a website, www.helpingpatients.org, where people can learn about the giveaway programs. The group also estimates that of the $10 billion in free samples given to doctors for marketing purposes every year, two-thirds wind up in the hands of patients who can't afford their medications.
Mark Grayson. A PhRMA spokesman said studies have shown that 50 percent of patients don't know about government drug-assistance program, either.
"Instead of just concentrating on company programs, he should concentrate on all programs, because many people don't know about them." he said.
As for pharmaceutical profit margins, Grayson cited a federal government report that found drug companies' net is similar to corporations in the high-tech sector.
Albano was elected mayor in 1996 and easily cruised to his last victory reelection in 2002. He became interested in drugs from Canada after his son was diagnosed with diabetes and he began to research the cost of maintenance medications like insulin. Because Canada has a national healthcare system with proven controls on prescriptions, prices are 20 to 80 percent lower than in the United States.
