Given the announcement that PhRMA CEO and former Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., was stepping down in June, I thought I'd point our readers to an interesting and informative Sunlight Foundation report.

The Foundation's Paul Blumenthal delved into the White House visitor logs, lobbying disclosure forms and campaign finance documents to track the influence of PhRMA as Tauzin worked on health care reform over the past year.

Among the interesting stats are this:

Over the course of 2009, the drug industry trade group spent over $28 million on in-house and hired lobbyists. Aside from PhRMA's massive in-house lobbying operation, the trade group hired 48 outside lobbying firms. The total number of lobbyists working for PhRMA in 2009 reached 165. Some 137 of those 165 lobbyists representing PhRMA were former employees of either the legislative or executive branches. Of these, dozens were former congressional staffers including two former chiefs of staff to [Senate Finance Committee Chairman and Montana Democrat] Max Baucus.

PhRMA negotiated a controversial $80 billion deal with the White House in exchange for its support of health care reform and Sunlight pinpoints Tauzin's meetings with key officials along the way.

See his post here.