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Washington’s powerful drug lobby is gearing up to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a post-election ad war pushing back against politicians from both parties who have savaged its members over drug prices.

The massive campaign by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) — expected to start positive by highlighting drugs that save or prolong lives — will dwarf the $20 million that health insurers spent on the iconic "Harry and Louise" campaign credited with sinking Hillary Clinton's health reform plan in the early 1990s.

And that’s just one part of a larger effort by the K Street lobbying powerhouse to seize control of the public narrative over drug prices and to reassert its dominance in Washington after several years in which it has taken a public shellacking over prices, with even reliable political allies in Congress questioning its pricing strategies. Both Clinton and Donald Trump, for instance, are urging changes in the law that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

PhRMA wants to drive a broader discussion on health costs, emphasizing that other players must play a role in tamping down costs and offering to work with insurers and others to find solutions, senior company officials and lobbyists said.

"The reality and the message and the playbook used for a number of years is over," said Bill Pierce, senior director of the public affairs firm APCO Worldwide, which represents several drug companies, and a former HHS official under President George W. Bush.

The industry can no longer defend high drug prices by pointing to the pricey research and development that goes into innovative medicines. "They have to move on," he said.

Drug companies are used to Democrats attacking prices, but Republicans are also starting to chide the industry for large hikes on old drugs and raising concerns about the financial burden that prescription drugs place on entitlement programs.

Just last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed concern that drug companies "might be exploiting" Medicare's prescription drug benefit "to maximize their market share." The program's catastrophic coverage requires the government to pick up the tab for most patients' drug costs after $4,850 per year — spending which has increased by 85 percent in three years.

Those and other calls — including the demand by both presidential candidates that Medicare negotiate drug prices — have awakened a sleeping giant, which routinely spends more on lobbying than any other health care group and took in more than $200 million in member dues in 2014, compared to about $80 million for the American Hospital Association and about $41 million for America's Health Insurance Plans.

The group's playbook for 2017 includes adding new members, raising dues and retooling a lobbying machine that insiders say atrophied since PhRMA achieved many of its top goals with Obamacare's passage. Now it's ready to shout its message not just inside the corridors of power but beyond the Beltway.

Pharma companies are not doing a great job at reaching physicians through social, and their ability to advertise to consumers could be eliminated in the US if the American Medical Association (AMA) has its way.

But the pharmaceutical industry's largest trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), isn't targeting physicians or consumers in what could be its most important ad campaign.

As detailed by the Wall Street Journal, as part of PhRMA's multi-million dollar spend this year, the organization will be relying heavily on social channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for the digital portion of the campaign.

The goal: counter ongoing public outrage over drug prices with the pharma industry's perspective in an effort to avoid or limit action that could harm pharma companies.

The most interesting aspect of PhRMA's digital campaign is that it won't be attempting to win the hearts and minds of the general population.

That is an impossible undertaking, as PhRMA board member and Celgene Corp CEO Robert Hugin told attendees at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco in January.

Instead, PhRMA plans to use the targeting tools offered by social channels to target its digital ads specifically to influential individuals, namely politicians and analysts who impact healthcare policy.

Those targeting tools are increasingly powerful. For example, on Facebook, advertisers can target their ads to users in specific locations, like Washington DC.

Combined with Facebook's ability to target using demographics, interests and behaviors, and it's likely that an organization like PhRMA could have quite a bit of success reaching a relatively small group of influencers with just a handful of thoughtful filters.

The pharmaceutical industry, under fire this election season for rising drug prices, is ramping up a new advertising campaign designed to improve its reputation with lawmakers as it lobbies against any effort to rein in prescription costs. 

The sector’s largest trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, says it intends to spend several million dollars this year, and 10% more than in 2015, on digital, radio and print ads that emphasize the industry’s role in developing new drugs and advancing medical science.
 

Many of the ads are running on social-media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter,because PhRMA wants to target federal and state lawmakers, policy analysts and other political “influencers,” said Robert Zirkelbach, senior vice president of communications at PhRMA, which represents nearly three dozen of the largest drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc. and Amgen Inc.

Websites like Facebook promise to deliver ads to specific audiences based on characteristics including their location, occupation and keyword search history. 

The campaign is primarily directed at policy makers in Washington, but ads will also run in some select states that have yet to be determined, Mr. Zirkelbach said.