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 The industry, which traditionally gives more to Republicans,
channeled around 60% of donated campaign funds to Democrats this
year. It has spent over $177 million on lobbying and campaign
donations in 2021.
Nonprofit political action committees (PACs) run by Pfizer Inc and
Amgen Inc and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America (PhRMA) were among the biggest donors, according to
political spending data from OpenSecrets, formerly the Center for
Responsive Politics.
Drugmakers are seeking to block laws that would give the U.S.
government authority to negotiate prices for prescription medicines.
Current U.S. law bars the government's Medicare health insurance
program from negotiating drug prices directly.
Many of the Democrats opposing an ambitious drug reduction bill
proposed in the House of Representatives are among some of the
biggest recipients of drug manufacturer lobbying funds.
They include Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Robert Menendez of
New Jersey, and Representative Scott Peters of California,
OpenSecrets data covering industry donations through September of
2021 shows. In all, they have received around $1 million in
pharmaceutical and health product industry donations this year.
A spokesperson for Sinema did not respond to a request for comment
on the funds she has received but said the Senator supports making
drugs as cheap as possible for patients.
Menendez and Peters said the donations did not influence their
views. All three said they are opposed to The Lower Drug Costs Now
Act, which is sponsored by Democrats in the House of Representatives
and also known as H.R.3.
Menendez and Peters have advocated for alternative scaled-back drug
pricing reforms that would still allow Medicare to negotiate drug
prices but would lead to significantly smaller savings.
Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who is also one of the top
recipients of drugmaker donations, voted in favor of H.R.3.
Sinema, who campaigned in 2018 on cutting drug prices, told the
White House she opposes allowing Medicare to negotiate them. She
received about $466,000 from the industry in 2021, according to
OpenSecrets data.
Peters was the top recipient of pharmaceutical industry funds in the
House this year at nearly $99,550, according to OpenSecrets data. A
spokesperson said Peters was not influenced by lobbying money and
opposed the proposed law to protect pharmaceutical industry jobs and
innovation.
Drugmakers say the Democrats’ proposed drug price overhaul would
undermine their ability to develop new medicines, an argument they
have used whenever price cuts are discussed by politicians
regardless of political party.
"Patients face a future with less hope under Congress' current drug
pricing plan," PhRMA Chief Executive Steve Ubl said in an August
statement in reference to the proposed law. PhRMA declined to
comment on donating to key Democratic opponents of the bill.
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 The United States is an outlier
as most other developed nations do negotiate
drug prices with manufacturers.
Amgen did not immediately respond to requests
for comment on its donations and Pfizer declined
to comment.
PROSPECTS FOR REFORM
President Joe Biden has vowed to cut medicine
costs, in part by allowing the federal
government to negotiate drug payments by
Medicare, which covers Americans aged 65 and
older. But prospects for major
drug pricing reforms have stalled in recent weeks amid opposition
from centrist Democrats including Sinema and Peters. Negotiations
are ongoing, eight Democratic staffers said.
The lawmakers' resistance comes as 83% of Americans support allowing
Medicare to negotiate medicine costs, according to a Kaiser Family
Foundation poll. The United States spends more than twice as much
per person on drugs as other wealthy economies, about $1,500, for a
total of around $350 billion in 2019.
"Members of Congress don't always mirror the views of the public and
the pharmaceutical industry is a powerful lobbying force," said
Larry Levitt, a health economist at Kaiser. The
healthcare industry is the second largest industry lobbying group in
the United States behind the finance sector. It donated more than
$600 million to politicians ahead of the 2020 elections.
The pharmaceutical industry has spent hundreds of millions of
dollars per year to sway federal and state policy. But current
Democratic leadership has the industry concerned major reforms could
actually be enacted and is working harder to offer alternatives such
as reducing insurance co-pays, one industry source said. "It's been
sort of a mad scramble."
Corporations in the United States are not permitted to make direct
contributions to candidates but can give money through PACs. Most
corporate PACs, including Pfizer’s and Amgen’s, are run by company
managers and employees.
Democrats and some drug price experts say the Lower Drug Costs Now
Act could save U.S. taxpayers and consumers billions annually with
relatively minor impact on innovation.
A House Oversight and Reform Committee report showed that top
drugmakers have spent around $50 billion more on share buybacks and
dividends than research and development between 2016 and 2020.
Lovisa Gustafsson, a healthcare policy analyst at the Commonwealth
Fund, a non-profit healthcare advocacy group, said, "There are other
ways that we can incentivize innovation, aside from just paying huge
margins for pharmaceutical companies.”
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Carl O'Donnell in
New York; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
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