WASHINGTON (AP) – With high-dollar advertising and personal visits to lawmakers’ districts, drug industry lobbyists are making a last-ditch effort to convince consumers and Congress that a plan to allow foreign drugs into the United States would harm their health.

The multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign is designed to sway people – particularly senior citizens, a crucial voting bloc – who are eager to find cheaper alternatives for their medicines.

“We are lobbying member by member. We are talking to anyone who will listen at the 11th hour, and the message is very clear,” said Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, also known as PhRMA.

The drug industry fears the legislation could result in price controls like those in some other countries. It also is telling consumers to listen to the Food and Drug Administration, which long has argued that giving consumers open access to foreign drugs could expose patients to unsafe medications.

In addition to lobbyists’ efforts, Trewhitt said he has visited nine congressional districts over the past few months.

On Wednesday, the day before an anticipated House vote on the measure, he was in Republican Rep. Wayne Gilchrest’s Maryland district. Trewhitt was talking to a newspaper’s editor and doing a radio interview “saying we sure wish Congressman Gilchrest was not supporting this bill because it’s bad legislation.”

The drug industry is lobbying aggressively and is the legislation’s best-financed opponent. But the highest-profile part of the effort – an ad campaign – has been organized by a senior citizens group.

The Seniors Coalition, a group partially funded by drug companies, has spent millions on radio and newspaper ads, mailings and a phone bank urging people to ask their member of Congress to vote against the bill.

The effort is aimed at lawmakers the group thinks can be swayed on the issue or who oppose the bill and need reassurance that they have support for that position, spokesman Chris Butler said.

“Very shortly, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on an amendment that will greatly undermine the ability of the FDA to protect you and your family from unregulated, fake and dangerous prescription drugs,” the script for the coalition’s phone bank says. “This legislation would allow drugs to flood across U.S. borders from all over the world with little or no FDA monitoring to protect your health and safety.”

The coalition also has sent an 80-year-old spokeswoman on its staff to some congressional districts to campaign against the legislation at senior citizen centers.

Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., the bill’s chief sponsor, said his office is among those receiving calls directed by the group. He said most callers end up supporting his bill after talking to his staff.

“The average American pays the world’s highest prices for prescription drugs,” Gutknecht said. “I’m not saying with the bill I have that that’s the only answer or it’s even the best answer. What we are saying is the status quo is unacceptable.”

Several consumer groups said that while they support Gutknecht’s bill and sent letters to members of Congress saying so, they are focused on lobbying on Medicare prescription drug legislation.

“We don’t have the endless resources the pharmaceutical lobby does,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “Therefore we’ve got to choose how we’re going to devote our staff time and resources.”

Gutknecht said he considered himself in a “David versus Goliath” fight against drug companies and their allies.

The pharmaceutical industry made more than $20 million in political contributions in the past election, with roughly $8 of every $10 going to Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

PHrMA itself gave over $3 million and spent more than $14 million lobbying Congress on various issues last year.

It also is part of a coalition, the Partnership for Safe Medicines, that is lobbying against the import legislation. Other members include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Biotechnology Industry Council, the Kidney Cancer Association, and The Seniors Coalition.

An anti-abortion group called the Traditional Values Coalition has sent out mailings arguing the legislation may make RU-486, the morning-after abortion pill, “as easy to get as aspirin.”

Republican Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, a co-sponsor of the drug import bill whose constituents were among consumers getting the mailing, has asked the Traditional Values Coalition to reveal its sources of funding, Burton spokesman Nick Mutton said. Burton, who opposes abortion, believes the coalition’s argument on RU-486 is ridiculous, Mutton said.

The Traditional Values Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

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On the Net:

Information about the legislation, H.R. 2427, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov

AP-ES-07-23-03 1649EDT