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Who's in the Video
Billy Tauzin is a politician, lawyer and lobbyist. Of Cajun descent, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972-1979 and the United States House of Representatives[…]

An insider’s view of lobbying.

Question: What do you do as president of PhRMA?

Transcript:Well what I do now obviously is to . . . is to represent the policy concerns and the policy positions of the global pharmaceutical industry; not only here in this country, but in national forums across the world. We have an office in Tokyo, one in Brussels; and we’ve got representatives of ours across the world in different continents and in different countries. We have 10 offices around America. We regionally organized efforts to make sure that our policies, our positions are represented across state capitals in the 50 states. So it’s a . . . it’s a . . . it’s a major uptick, if you will, in political activity for me. Secondly our role is to help reshape the public perception of the industry. When I took over two and a half years ago after my 25 years in Congress, the industry was at a fairly low . . . it had been in terms of public approval and support. And trying to turn that around and to . . . and to demonstrate that the industry has a good heart and not just a good head; that it’s not just a bunch of research scientists trying to make products or make money; it’s also about patients and saving patient lives. That’s a big task. And being the first patient – cancer survivor – ever to head this organization has given me an opportunity, I think, to help remake if you will not only the organization, but the direction of the companies in terms of their public image and their public . . . their public responsibilities.

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