PhRMA Ranked as Top Lobbying Group in DC – What Say You?
July 25th, 2013 // 1:23 pm @ jmpickett
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Many policymakers in DC think that the pharma industry is definitely getting its money’s worth for the dues they hand to PhRMA, the drug industry trade group. A recent survey of 500 policymakers in DC stated that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is the best in 4 of 15 ranked areas, which suggests that the trade group is the most effective in Washington DC.
PhRMA was voted best at multilateral impact, local impact membership mobilization and lobbying. The only associations that were able to get #1 in more than one area were the US Travel Assn., and the US Chamber of Commerce.
These results should be encouraging for pharmaceutical companies, because this shows that PhRMA is worth the dues you pay it in a tough global market. For example, the organization is very aggressive in work with the Obama administration and Congress to influence some of the latest talks on international trade.
This survey was done by APCO Worldwide, which is a PR firm with a large presence in corporate business in the US and also in DC. This was the first study that has ever looked at association effectiveness with a systematic approach to nail down specific characteristics that actually define how effective associations are in driving public policy, according to Brian Dumont, who is the leader of the APCO Insight division.
One of the big takeaways of this study is that associations such as PhRMA that focus on strategic characteristics, such as building relationships and trying to protect the reputation of the whole industry, are the most effective. Tactical elements do not have as much effect.
We do not know at this time who exactly were surveyed, and whether all respondents were elected officials.
