Debra Barrett | National Coalition on Health Care

Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, TEVA Pharmaceuticals

Debra S. Barrett joined Teva Pharmaceuticals as the Vice President for Government Affairs in January 2006 and promoted to Senior Vice President in 2008.  Prior to joining Teva, Ms. Barrett served as a Senior Vice President at The Washington Group, a bipartisan advocacy firm, offering lobbying and consulting services on a range of health care issues.

Prior to joining The Washington Group, Ms. Barrett served as the Vice President for Policy and Senior Director for Government Affairs at the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.  In that capacity, Ms. Barrett worked extensively on the Hatch-Waxman reform provisions included in the Medicare bill signed by President Bush in December 2003. 

Previously, Ms. Barrett spent a total of six years on Capitol Hill, most recently working for Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) in his role as chairman of the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).  In that role, Ms. Barrett was responsible for health care issues including prescription drug coverage and testing, Patients’ Bill of Rights, the uninsured, mental health parity, children’s health, FDA reform, managed care, medical privacy, and stem cell research.  She was the lead staff on reauthorization of the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (signed into law in January 2002).

Prior to serving on the Senate HELP Committee, Ms. Barrett worked for Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) as a legislative aide for health care and education policy; and for Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) with a focus on mental health and women’s health issues.  In addition, she was a policy analyst on health insurance issues at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, worked in the Domestic Policy Council Office of First Lady Hillary Clinton, and was an assignment editor and producer at CNN’s Washington bureau, where she covered politics and legislative issues.

Ms. Barrett has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s in public policy with a concentration in health care policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.