The White House has another damage control problem on its hands. PhRMA, the nation’s largest pharma lobby, is calling on the WH to come clean with previous assurances that there would be no government involvment in the negotiations of industry payments and industry rebates beyond a previously agreed upon capped amount as an effort to control the healthcare costs associated with prescription drugs.

For the first time in his administration, Barack Obama is in the unenviable position of having to explain under-the-table negotiations with lobbyists as part of a larger effort to extract cooperation from those private groups touting, in some form, support for his reforms — even as he has sternly admitted to blocking the hiring of those with former industry lobbying ties within his administration.

Coming at a time in which the public is wary over the exact terms a reform package would entail, the last thing that it wants to consider is just how accomodating Obama is to private third parties in pushing the bill through. Alternatively, Pharma — and not Insurance — risks political alienation and any hint of cooperation in the face of administrative backtracking on the part of the president. For Obama, the patients he says he is fighting for, and the Pharma lobby, this appears to be a lose-lose (-lose) situation in the trust department. | LINK

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