WASHINGTON — The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the lobbying group that represents roughly 1,000 biotech companies, is wrestling with inner turmoil that threatens its ability to navigate a Washington that is eager to reform drug prices.
Five of the organization’s top lobbyists have left within the last eight months, including the executive who led the organization’s policy and legal work for more than a decade. This month, BIO announced that its longtime head of lobbying, Jeanne Haggerty, was departing — a move that shocked staff and member company lobbyists who worked directly with Haggerty. Less than a week later, BIO announced her replacement.
The tumult extends beyond the lobbying operation. When the group’s new CEO, Michelle McMurry-Heath, organized a quiet, internal effort to talk about drug pricing policy last year — by far the biggest issue facing the companies that make up BIO — it initially inflamed existing tensions within BIO’s membership, prompting complaints from powerful executives. There have also been clashes over issues far afield from drug pricing, such as whether the group should take a stand on voting rights.
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