Drug Companies Lobby Against Free Trade
USA Today reports on the Washington lobbying by US drug companies. They have doubled their spending on lobbying from $79.6 million in 1998 to an estimated $158 million in 2004.
Drug companies and their officials contributed at least $17 million to federal candidates in last year's elections, including nearly $1 million to President Bush and more than $500,000 to his opponent, John Kerry. At least 18 members of Congress received more than $100,000 apiece.
The industry also liberally funds think tanks and patient-advocacy groups that don't bear its name but often take its side; the National Patient Advocate Foundation, for instance, receives financial support from at least 10 drug companies. And the industry isn't above playing hardball, according to David Graham, a Food and Drug Administration scientist who got on its bad side.
Since 1998, drug companies have spent $758 million on lobbying - more than any other industry, according to government records analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group. In Washington, the industry has 1,274 lobbyists - more than two for every member of Congress.
Of couse, pharmaceutical companies have a rational reason to lobby so hard. Thanks to the corporate welfare they receive, drug companies enjoy the highest profit margins of any US industry, almost four times the Fortune 500 average. It looks likely that, despite the lobbyists, the ban on free trade ("parallel trading") in drugs will be lifted. That will cut costs for American consumers - and without harming research and development of new drugs.
Drug companies and their officials contributed at least $17 million to federal candidates in last year's elections, including nearly $1 million to President Bush and more than $500,000 to his opponent, John Kerry. At least 18 members of Congress received more than $100,000 apiece.
The industry also liberally funds think tanks and patient-advocacy groups that don't bear its name but often take its side; the National Patient Advocate Foundation, for instance, receives financial support from at least 10 drug companies. And the industry isn't above playing hardball, according to David Graham, a Food and Drug Administration scientist who got on its bad side.
Since 1998, drug companies have spent $758 million on lobbying - more than any other industry, according to government records analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group. In Washington, the industry has 1,274 lobbyists - more than two for every member of Congress.
Of couse, pharmaceutical companies have a rational reason to lobby so hard. Thanks to the corporate welfare they receive, drug companies enjoy the highest profit margins of any US industry, almost four times the Fortune 500 average. It looks likely that, despite the lobbyists, the ban on free trade ("parallel trading") in drugs will be lifted. That will cut costs for American consumers - and without harming research and development of new drugs.
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