Fiscal Footnote: Big Senate Gift to Drug Maker

NY Times | By ERIC LIPTON and KEVIN SACK | Published: January 19, 2013; WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a paragraph into the “fiscal cliff” bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored one of its drugs.   The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis patients.   Senators Max Baucus, left, and Orrin Hatch, in June at a Finance Committee meeting, have received contributions from Amgen.  Read more