State firm uses old-style lobbying to sell cutting-edge product
By: Deirdre Shesgreen | August 10, 2011
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WASHINGTON--A Westport-based bio-medical company is immersed in an unusual lobbying campaign, trying to sell a high-tech burn remedy to counter-terrorism experts in Washington who decide what to buy for the government's public-health-emergency stockpile.
But while the product and the company, Advanced BioHealing, may be cutting edge, their Washington strategy is old-school. To press their case, they've hired a sophisticated public relations firm and a cadre of politically-connected lobbyists--including Matthew Hennessy, a former aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is among several Connecticut legislators urging the government to stockpile the company's medical cure.
In addition to Hennessy, whose company website features a photo of him with Lieberman and Bill Clinton, ABH has also brought on the Glover Park Group, a communications firm stocked with politically-wired media strategists, including several who worked for the Clinton White House.
http://ctmirror.org/2011/08/10/state-firm-uses-old-style-lobbying-sell-cutting-edge-product/