Lobby Watch:Epilepsy Drug Lobby Gave Lawmakers Fits

Facing huge revenue losses as a result of expiring patents for anti-seizure pills, drug makers teamed up with the industry-funded Epilepsy Foundation to press states to suppress generic-drug competition, the Murdoch Wall Street Journal recently reported. The Journal reported that when the foundation’s San Antonio and Houston chapters decided to make such a lobby push in Austin, Abbott Laboratories agreed to fund their efforts.
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Lobby Watch:Toomey's SMerck®: Experts At A Loss To Explain How Governor Got HPV Bug

The Capitol has been abuzz since Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order on February 2 directing prepubescent Texas girls to get vaccinated for sexually-transmitted viruses that can cause cervical cancer. Governor Perry’s uncharacteristic executive order has fostered endless speculation about what occurred behind the scenes.
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Lobby Watch: Lawmakers Hooked On Stimulants Make Fast Money Delaying Justice

In recent years, manufacturers of weight-loss stimulants linked to thousands of serious injuries and deaths have retained at least four Texas legislators. Lawmakers hired by vendors of dangerous ephedrine and fen-phen diet remedies appear to have abused their offices to delay both court cases and regulatory restrictions that target peddlers of these dangerous products.
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Lobby Watch:How Politicians Got Fat On A Risky Weight-Loss Stimulant

When Julie Puett Howry collapsed on an Austin tennis court in 1994 few people could have foreseen how much money Texas politicians and lobbyists would collect as a result of deaths such as hers.
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