Drug Industry Wages Opioid Fight Using an Anti-Addiction Ally<br />The partnership with Ms. Nickel also sheds light on the industry’s efforts to shape the perception of its role in the nation’s burgeoning opioid epidemic, which President Trump has called a<br />“national health emergency.” By enlisting a prominent advocate as a partner, PhRMA is trying to position the industry on the right side of a health crisis that many blame it for creating.<br />As Minnesota lawmakers prepared to push a proposed tax on opioid sales in November, the pharmaceutical industry lobbyists who opposed the bill set up a meeting with its sponsors,<br />and they brought an unusual guest: Jessica Hulsey Nickel, a prominent anti-addiction advocate in Washington.<br />“I wasn’t buying it.”<br />While she is open — and unapologetic — about accepting money from the pharmaceutical group,<br />Ms. Nickel declined to disclose exactly how much PhRMA had donated to her group.<br />Ms. Nickel also started her own lobbying firm, whose clients included nonprofit groups and Alkermes, a drug company<br />that makes a medication that helps treat opioid addiction.<br />“They are investing in nonprofit groups that will do the same.’’<br />In Ms. Nickel, the pharmaceutical industry has found an advocate who combines firsthand knowledge about addiction with Beltway policy savvy.
