Working for Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., sparked Heidi Wilson’s interest in health care, an issue that led her to the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

Wilson started as an intern for Mack before moving up to legislative assistant, where she learned to be a jack of all trades on Capitol Hill. But the debate on the health care overhaul law pushed her focus toward health issues.

“Working on legislation with Congress surrounding the Affordable Care Act, sparked an interest [for me] in health care,” she told CQ Roll Call.

After working for Mack from 2009 to 2011, she took her experience and contacts into the private sector going to Universal American Corp., an insurance, finance and administrative services company that specializes in offering products to the senior and self-employed markets. There she worked as director of government relations, growing relationships in the private health care sector and using her background on the Hill to work on the company’s priorities.

Wilson joined GPhA’s government affairs team last week as director of federal government affairs.

GPhA represents manufacturers and distributors of finished generic pharmaceuticals, manufacturers and distributors of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic industry.

“It’s day two, so we are kinda in the working process of settling on what my actual duties will be,” Wilson quipped to CQ Roll Call last week. She added, “The focus will be promoting our big issues, of course, and advocating access to affordable prescriptions.

“Generic pharmaceuticals fill 84 percent of the prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. but consume just 27 percent of the total drug spending,” Wilson said.

Wilson also noted that the relationships she established while working on the Hill will be essential to championing GPhA’s message of safety and cost savings of generic therapies to Congress at some point.

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