Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy
This association represents 5,700 pharmacists and other health care professionals who design and administer drug benefit programs for health insurance plans and employers.

What They Want
AMCP's role in the health care debate has focused on medication therapy management and comparative effectiveness. Both measures are included in proposed legislation.

AMCP wants to ensure that the pharmaceutical benefits that are part of any mandated insurance policies include not only medication, but also the "therapy and counseling that goes along with those," said Judith Cahill, executive director of AMCP.

Encouraging those therapies through incentives like grant programs would "utilize the pharmacists for greater services beyond delivery of the product," said William Hermelin, AMCP's director of government relations.

The group supports comparative effectiveness because it wants to maximize the benefits of treatments. Comparative effectiveness measures seek to encourage and disseminate research into the cost-effectiveness of treatment options.

Deal Breakers
AMCP does not support government-negotiated drug prices or an extended exclusivity period for biologics.

Legislation proposed by the House and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would require a 12-year period of exclusivity for companies that develop original biologics before generic versions, or biosimilars, could be developed. AMCP does not support this amount of time and prefers the 5-year exclusivity period suggested by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Biologics are complex drugs made from living organisms used to treat particularly serious or complex conditions, like cancer and HIV/AIDS, and manufacturers argue they need the extended exclusivity period to recoup their investment in development.

"In anticipation of the expiration of patents for older biologic products and the new biologic products that are expected to come to market, and in recognition of the fact that these products are often prohibitively expensive, it is imperative that Congress address this issue," Cahill wrote in a June letter to Waxman and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

AMCP would not support changes to Medicare Part D that would mandate prescription price negotiations by the government via the Health and Human Services secretary instead of plan sponsors, citing a reduction in market-driven competition.

How Much They've Spent
AMCP spent over $675,000 on all lobbying activities in the first half of 2009, more than seven times the $92,000 the group spent in the first half of 2008, according to lobbying disclosure forms.

The group is also part of several coalitions -- the Alliance for Better Health Care, the Rx Benefits Coalition, the Pharmacy Stakeholders Coalition and Stand for Quality -- that have worked to advocate for measures in health care legislation.

AMCP does not have a political action committee through which it makes donations. Its total revenue for fiscal year 2008 was $12.1 million, according to IRS forms.

Key Players

Cahill (right) and Hermelin have lead the group's efforts on reform legislation though "many, many, many visits to Capitol Hill," as well as meetings with Obama's transition team dating back to last winter, Hermelin said.

"We have spent a lot of our waking hours on health care reform for the better part of the last year," Cahill said.

AMCP has also arranged trips for its members to meet with lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill "so that they can be educated on what happens on the front lines in terms of managed care pharmacy," she said.

Hermelin has also attended meetings with White House officials from the Office of Health Reform and the Council of Economic Advisers.

Cahill is not a registered lobbyist. Hermelin leads AMCP's team of four registered lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Links
AMCP's Health Care Page
Cahill's Letter On Biosimilars