Medical device industry players anted up during the second quarter, spending millions to try and influence the shape of the healthcare reform push in Washington.
Medical device industry players spent more than $7.8 million lobbying Congress during the second quarter, hoping to influence the shape of the healthcare reform push in Washington.
Device manufacturers, trade groups and health information technology firms filed disclosure forms detailing their Q2 lobbying expenditures to influence a host of legislative measures affecting the industry.
For example, Minneapolis-based device leviathan Medtronic dropped just more than $1 million, seeking to have its voice heard on issues ranging from patent reform, to federal pre-emption, to pain care policy.
Health products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson, the list's biggest spender, sent $1.6 million inside the Beltway, lobbying legislators over bills covering the federal budget, the drug dextromethorphan, amendments to the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and clean energy, among others.
Baxter Healthcare, which spent $980,000 on lobbying during the quarter, put some of the cash toward influencing bills on comparative effectiveness research, the Physician Payment Sunshine Act and trade issues with China.
Local lion Boston Scientific Corp. also spent part of its $480,000 lobbying on that bill, which would mandate disclosure of gifts to physicians by drug and medical device manufacturers as part of their sales operations.
Manufacturers weren't alone in spending big to influence the political process. AdvaMed, the industry's national trade council, spent more than $380,000 on lobbying during the quarter.
Even relatively small outfits got in on the act (no offense intended to the Assn. of Medical Device Reprocessors, which spent $30,000 during the quarter to lobby on "educat[ing] Congressional staff, members of Congress, FDA and VA officials" on the FDA-regulated, third-party reprocessing industry).
Here's a partial list of companies and groups that lobbied on healthcare and Medicare/Medicaid issues during the second quarter, in descending order of expenditure:
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