Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America – better known as PhRMA – has tapped Annapolis contract lobbyist Julia Pitcher Worcester to be its director of state policy and advocacy in Maryland.
It’s a new position – and an acknowledgement by the giant lobbying group that Maryland is increasingly becoming a hotbed for legislation impacting the prescription drug industry.
Worcester and her father, J. William Pitcher, have already worked for PhRMA as contract lobbyists – one of a dozen lobbyists that the organization used during this year’s General Assembly session, according to Maryland State Ethics Commission filings.
PhRMA also used five lobbyists from Perry, White, Ross & Jacobson; three lobbyists from the Washington, D.C.-based Howard Consulting Group (whose principal, Frank Howard Jr., is an old Republican operative with ties to Maryland); and two lobbyists from PhRMA headquarters in D.C.: Ryan Garofalo and Nicole Palya Wood.
Pitcher has been a fixture in the Annapolis lobbying corps for three decades, and since joining her father’s firm, Worcester – who is also president of the Maryland Government Relations Association – has developed an expertise in health care policy.
Worcester said that another contract lobbyist, John A. Andryszak, who has health care and insurance clients, would begin doing some work for the Pitcher firm as she transitions to her PhRMA job.