Lilly, Barr, AZ and Sepracor Were Generous to Sen. Hatch's Utah Charity

(MoneyWatch)  Five drug and device companies, plus their lobbyist, PhRMA, are all very, very concerned about the welfare of Utah families. So concerned they gave $172,400 to the Utah Family Foundation over the last few years.

By amazing coincidence, the foundation was founded by Sen. Orrin Hatch, who has long made legislative efforts favoring Big Pharma and whose son is employed as a lobbyist by PhRMA.

The Washington Times suggests the donations are a way for pharma companies to curry favor with Hatch without going over campaign contribution limits. Here's the breakdown of who gave what:

• Eli Lilly: $25,000
• Becton Dickinson: $25,000
• Barr Pharmaceuticals: $30,000
• AstraZeneca: $25,000
• Sepracor: $27,500
• PhRMA: $40,000.

The Times:

At the time of the PhRMA donation to the Utah charity, Scott Hatch was a named partner and registered lobbyist at Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC, a Washington lobbying firm that was paid $120,000 by PhRMA to lobby Congress on pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) legislation.

Here's the backstory:

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a nonprofit government watchdog organization, said that in 2006, Mr. Hatch took seven trips costing a total of $12,000 sponsored by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as two industry trade groups, the California Healthcare Institute and the Healthcare Leadership Council. At the time, he held $18,000 worth of stock in Pfizer and Novartis, the Swiss-based manufacturer of Ritalin, the drug that treats attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder.

After using a complimentary Gulfstream executive jet provided by drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp. for his long-shot presidential campaign in 2000, he drafted legislation extending the drug company's patent on the drug Claritin.

According to filings with the Utah Secretary of State's Office, the Utah Families Foundation has been delinquent for years in filing its required annual reports.

Guy Morris, the foundation's accountant, said the paperwork is being updated and called the failure to file "a very innocent situation" that likely happened when the organization switched addresses.

• See BNET's previous coverage of drug lobbying:
• Drug Makers Gave Lobbyists an Xmas Gift -- Millions More to Lobby Obama Administration
• Obama Already Turning Into a Nightmare for Big Pharma
• Pharma Election Money Backs Obama