Panels on Trade Policy & Access to Medicines and New State Policies on Prescription Drug Marketing

Do Trade Policies Threaten Access to Affordable Medicines in the States? Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 7:15-8:30 am (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, room Salon L)

States are starting to recognize that trade policy can affect access to affordable prescription drugs and generics here in the U.S. What is the Working Group on Trade & Prescription Drugs is doing to make access to health care a priority in trade policy, and to protect low Medicaid prices? (Co-sponsored by the Working Group on Trade and Prescription Drugs, NLARx and The Forum on Trade and Democracy)

Speakers:

• Peter Riggs, Director, Forum on Democracy & Trade
• Maine Rep. Sharon Treat, Executive Director, National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx)

Data, Drugs and Disclosure: States Lead the Way on Pharmaceutical Policy Friday, July 24, 2009, 2-4 pm (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Salon D)

Drug and medical device manufacturers use sophisticated techniques to market products to doctors, patients and even kids-- mining data, using social and electronic media, and buying access. States are leading the way disclosing payments, banning gifts and regulating predatory marketing. Learn what you can do to prevent conflicts of interest, improve medical care and reduce drug prices!

Speakers:

• Maine Rep. Sharon Treat, Executive Director, NLARx, Moderator: ?Roundup of Innovative State Legislation in the 2009 Session?
• Vermont Senator Peter Shumlin, Senate President Pro Tem, Jennifer Carbee, and Robin Lunge, Vermont Legislative Council, ?Vermont?s Pharmaceutical and Medical Device manufacturer Gift Ban and Disclosure Law?
• Ann Woloson, Executive Director, Prescription Policy Choices, ?Safe Prescribing: Protecting Kids While Controlling Costs?
• Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, PharmedOut, Georgetown University Medical Center, ?Bending the Bans: How Pharma Plans to Dodge State Legislation ?
• Meredith Jacob, Esq., Pharmaceutical Policy Fellow, American University?s Washington College of Law, ?Legal Developments: State Successes in Fighting off Big Pharma?s Challenges to State Policies on Datamining?
• Allan Coukell, Director, Pew Prescription Project, ?Physician Payments Sunshine Act and the Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act: Updates and Effects on State Programs?

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Speaker Bios:

Peter Riggs is the Director of the Forum on Democracy and Trade. The Forum's mission is to support public officials engaged in global trade debates. It analyzes how trade commitments can impact local democracy, and helps state and local governments implement appropriate economic development policies that respond to structural changes in the global economy. Prior to establishing the Forum on Democracy and Trade in 2003, Peter Riggs worked for ten years as program officer and Director of East Asia programs at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Sharon Anglin Treat is the Executive Director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, a nonpartisan organization of state legislators working jointly across state lines to reduce prescription drug prices and expand access. Prior to joining the Association in September 2004, Treat served 14 years in the Maine Legislature, including 8 years in the Senate and two as Senate Majority Leader in 2003-04.

Peter Shumlin is a Democratic member of the Vermont Senate, representing the Windham Vermont Senate District from 1992 - 2002 and 2006 - present. He was appointed by Democratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin (D-VT) to fill a vacancy in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1990 through 1992 in Putney. In 1992, he was elected to the State Senate and was soon elected Senate Minority Leader by his caucus. In 1994, Shumlin led his Senate caucus to win back control of the Senate and became President Pro Tempore.

Robin Lunge has been an attorney focused on health and human services legislation and budget issues with the Vermont Legislative Council since 2003. During a leave of absence from the Vermont legislature, she worked as a policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and as the policy director for NLARx. Prior to 2003, Robin worked as a staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid for 6 years and as a law clerk for the Vermont trial courts. Robin received her B.A. in sociology from the University of California: Santa Cruz and her law degree from Cornell University.

Jennifer Carbee is an attorney with the Vermont Legislative Council, where she drafts legislation and staffs the health care- and human services-related interim and standing committees of the House and Senate. Prior to joining the Legislative Council, Jennifer practiced estate planning law with a small Vermont law firm and worked for the Office of Legislative Research at the Connecticut General Assembly. Jennifer received her B.A. from Middlebury College and her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ann L. Woloson is the Executive Director of Prescription Policy Choices. Prior to joining Prescription Policy Choices in 2006, Ann served as Chief of Staff for Maine?s Senate Majority Leaders where she advised legislative leaders regarding health care policy issues, including health care reform, prescription drug programs, hospital financing and the state budget related to health and human services programs. Her previous work experience serving as a health care policy analyst and advocate for several years in Maine?s nonprofit sector and also as a health care policy writer for Maine?s state Medicaid Program. She has served on a number of health care related boards and commissions including the Governor?s Health Action Team, and most recently the Commission to Study the Future of Primary Care in Maine. She previously chaired the State Medicaid Advisory Committee and was an active member of Maine?s Dual Diagnosis Task Force aimed at improving the continuity of care for people suffering from both mental illness and substance abuse and helped to establish the Maine Dental Access Coalition created in an effort improve access to oral health care throughout Maine.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD is an Associate Professor in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Master?s program (the first program in the field of CAM assessment to offer a basic sciences master's degree), Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Fugh-Berman's current research focuses on the rational use of both conventional and complementary therapies. She is the principal investigator of PharmedOut, a project to educate physicians about the influence that pharmaceutical companies have on prescribing. PharmedOut is funded by the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant program. Dr. Fugh-Berman's column "Prescription for Change" appears in the Women's Health Activist, available on the website of the National Women?s Health Network, a non-profit, science-based advocacy group that is one of a handful of consumer groups in the U.S. that takes no money from pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Fugh-Berman is the author of the 5-Minute Herb and Dietary Supplement Clinical Consult (Lippincott, Williams and Williams, 2003), Alternative Medicine: What Works (Williams and Wilkins, 1997) and co-author of The National Women?s Health Network?s The Truth about Hormone Replacement Therapy (Prima/Random House, 2002).

Meredith Jacob is a Pharmaceutical Policy Fellow at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) at the American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). She is a member of the Maryland Bar and a graduate of WCL and Williams College. Her work with PIJIP focuses on domestic pharmaceutical policy, including litigation of prescriber data mining laws and work with state legislatures to pass progressive health care legislation.

Allan Coukell directs the Pew Prescription Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts to promote consumer safety through reforms in the approval, manufacture and marketing of prescription drugs. He has worked as a clinical pharmacist, specializing in oncology; as a medical writer, for Adis International; and as the health and science reporter for WBUR, Boston?s NPR news station.