Tauzin Expected to Leave House for Trade Group : "Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is close to a decision to leave Congress to head the pharmaceutical industry's trade association..., sources in Washington and California said yesterday.

Tauzin...was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.

PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. ...

Tauzin would not be the first key public official involved in the Medicare legislation to leave for the private sector. In December, Thomas A. Scully, an author of the bill, resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to join an Atlanta law firm that represents drugmakers, hospitals and other health-care businesses. "