Hargett worked on drug bill shortly before getting Pfizer job

The House Republican leader announced Aug. 16 that he was resigning in September to lobby for Pfizer in Tennessee and Alabama. Hargett served as vice chairman of the House ethics committee and a member of a joint legislative panel on ethics.

In May, Hargett opposed a drug substitution bill that intended to save on TennCare expenses by requiring pharmacists to substitute cheaper therapeutically equivalent drugs, or “therapeutics,” for brand names on prescriptions unless overruled by doctors or patients.

The bill was opposed by lawmakers in both parties and pharmaceutical companies.

Hargett told The Commercial Appeal that there is no connection between his work on the bill and his future job with Pfizer. He said that although he may have called Pfizer sometime in May, his first interview wasn’t held until at least a week after the General Assembly adjourned at the end of May.

The bill stalled until a compromise was introduced that ruled out the required use of therapeutics and instead focused on generic drugs, which are also cheaper than brand name drugs.

Therapeutics have different chemical compositions from brand name drugs, but produce similar results. Generic drugs have the same chemical composition.

The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. David Shepard, R-Dickson, presented the compromise bill to the House Health and Human Resources Committee on May 10. It generally removed therapeutics from the bill, but called for a committee of doctors and pharmacists to consider future legislation for therapeutics.

According to audio tapes of the meeting reviewed by The Commercial Appeal, Hargett introduced an amendment to remove a remaining reference to therapeutics and asked Shepard to clarify the nature of the committee studying therapeutics.

“This committee shall not have the power to enact any changes nor shall the governor have the power to enact any (of its) recommendations?” Hargett asked. “It will have to come back to the legislature for any type of changes?”

“That’s correct,” Shepard replied.

Hargett also asked to make sure that the bill didn’t allow for the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, which is generally opposed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

Pfizer lobbyist Bill Williams told the newspaper Friday that Hargett asked him about “what our position was and I advised him that Pfizer never advised me to be for or against the bill.”

But Shepard said Friday that “all the drug companies were very much opposed to therapeutic substitution. Tre’ was a big part of the opposition.”

Hargett said Friday that he opposed therapeutics, but said it was not because of Pfizer. “I don’t think it’s a decision for pharmacists to make. I think it was a very big departure from what we were doing currently. I supported generic substitution. I might have supported therapeutics in the future. But we didn’t know enough about it at that point.”