Drugmakers go furthest to sway Congress

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2005 | by Jim Drinkard

Correction ran 4/29/05: A story Tuesday about lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry noted an incorrect affiliation for David Fassler, a witness at a Senate hearing. Fassler was representing the American Psychiatric Association.

WASHINGTON -- When Sen. Bill Frist needed help in November for a quick tour celebrating the victories of newly elected Republican senators, he didn't have to look far. A Gulfstream corporate jet owned by drugmaker Schering-Plough was ready to zip the Senate majority leader to stops in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Frist's political committee reimbursed the drugmaker $10,809, the equivalent of a first-class fare for the same trip on a commercial airline, as campaign rules require. The price, a fraction of the cost of a charter flight,...