Amgen Hires D.C. Lawyer as Its Chief Lobbyist

Amgen Inc. on Tuesday said it hired Washington lawyer David Beier to lead the biotech company’s lobbying effort in the nation’s capital, replacing longtime chief lobbyist Peter Teeley.

Beier, 55, joins Amgen as the company readies for a challenging year. Medicare is reviewing reimbursement for Amgen’s mainstay anemia drug, Epogen, and analysts expect the program to reduce payments in 2005. Epogen sales are likely to reach $2.5 billion this year.

Amgen’s Washington lobbying efforts cost $3 million in 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making the Thousand Oaks-based company among the biotech industry’s biggest spenders on lobbying.

Beier has lobbied for Genentech Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug industry group, according to Public Citizen. His firm, Hogan & Hartson, represented Amgen in its unsuccessful lawsuit against Medicare over reimbursement on another anemia drug, Aranesp.

Beier, who will become Amgen’s senior vice president of global government affairs, also served as chief domestic policy advisor to former Vice President Al Gore.

Teeley will become a full-time government affairs advisor to Amgen. A spokeswoman said he decided to step aside as part of a reorganization that had him report to Amgen marketing boss George Morrow instead of Chief Executive Kevin Sharer.