Senators block bill to let Medicare negotiate drug prices

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 19, 2007 | by Robert Pear New York Times News Service

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, said the vote showed that "the power of big pharma," the pharmaceutical industry, "is still a presence in the halls of Congress."

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said he did not need help from the industry in attacking the Democratic proposal. Kyl said he had not talked to drug lobbyists or seen their advertisements and "could not care less what they had to say."