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Ex-Rep. Tauzin proclaims: 'I’m healthy' |
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By Jeffrey Young
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Posted: 01/14/09 03:09 PM [ET] |
Former Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who heads the drug industry’s main lobbying association, addressed months of rumors about his declining health, declaring Wednesday that he is “totally healthy."
At a briefing with reporters at the headquarters of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Tauzin, a cancer survivor, acknowledged that his health deteriorated last year but said he had undergone treatment and was back at full strength.
“I’m healthy. Totally healthy,” said Tauzin. “So the rumors of my impending demise have been exaggerated. I’m buying green bananas again.”
Healthcare insiders have been speculating for months about the state of Tauzin’s health and whether it would affect PhRMA’s position in Washington were he to suffer a lengthy illness or die just as President-elect Obama and congressional Democrats are working on major healthcare legislation.
Tauzin said he “went through a bad patch” last year due to internal bleeding that was the result of scar tissue from his 2004 cancer surgery blocking a vein. He was treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Surgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the original procedure.
As president and CEO of PhRMA, Tauzin often cites his experience undergoing surgery and experimental drug treatments to cure his intestinal cancer as personal testimony to argue for the important role the pharmaceutical industry plays in the healthcare system.
Tauzin was originally diagnosed in 2003 while chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he was responsible for shepherding healthcare legislation through Congress, including the Medicare prescription drug benefit bill, which was a boon for pharmaceutical companies.
Though he’d stepped down from his committee post by late 2003, Tauzin drew fire from Democrats and government watchdogs for beginning his new job at PhRMA on the same day he formally resigned from Congress and for fielding job offers from PhRMA and the Motion Picture Association of America while still in office.
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