Device industry's Q2 lobbying spend nears $8 million

August 19, 2009 by MassDevice staff

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:

1. Johnson & Johnson: $1,555,000
2. Medtronic: $1,030,000
3. Baxter Healthcare Corp.: $980,000
4. Abbott Labs: $700,000
5. Covidien: $510,000
6. Boston Scientific $480,000
7. Advamed $380,324
8. Edwards Lifesciences $300,000
9. eHealth Inc. $226,950
10. McKesson $210,000
11. Quest Diagnostics $160,000
12. Becton, Dickinson $140,000
13. St. Jude Medical $120,000
14. Varian Medical Equipment $100,000
15. NxStage Medical $98,000
16. Inverness Medical Innovations $95,000
17. Biomet $90,000
18. Medical Devices Manufacturing Assn. $90,000
19. SonoSite Inc. $90,000
20. Patton Medical Devices $75,000
21. GE Healthcare $60,000
22. Kimberly-Clark $60,000
23. Wright Medical Technology $60,000
24. Analogic Corp. $50,000
25. Clinical Data Inc. $50,000
26. Stryker $49,195
27. Emdeon $40,000
28. iMedica $40,000
29. Abiomed $30,000
30. Assn. of Medical Device Reprocessors $30,000
31. Hanger Orthopedic Group $30,000
32. PerkinElmer $30,000
33. Zimmer Holdings $23,476
34. C.R. Bard $20,000
35. Hologic $20,000
36. InfraRdX $20,000
37. Intuitive Surgical $10,000
38. Athenahealth $5,000

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