Democrats once more narrowly maintain each the Home and Senate, and political scientists and different money-in-politics consultants mentioned the contributions seemingly replicate who’s in energy, which lawmakers face harder reelection bids subsequent yr, and who has outsize sway over laws affecting the trade’s backside line.
A number of pharmaceutical corporations paused contributions to Republican lawmakers who voted in opposition to certifying the outcomes of the 2020 election, blunting the GOP’s whole fundraising haul and total trade giving in contrast with different years.
The drug trade’s marketing campaign contributions are markedly strategic, mentioned Steven Billet, an affiliate professor on the Graduate College of Political Administration at George Washington College.
“This can be a actually well-organized business sector,” Billet mentioned. “If I’m one among these PACs, I’ve surveyed the panorama on the entrance finish of the method, selected our agenda and funds, and found out who I could possibly get to and who I wouldn’t be capable to get to.”
Of the highest 10 recipients of funding, Republican lawmakers accounted for six; Democrats, 4. Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) obtained essentially the most cash of any member of Congress, with $63,900 in contributions within the first half of the yr. Peters, whose San Diego-area district consists of a number of drug corporations, has persistently accepted cash from drugmakers since he took workplace in 2013, in accordance with KHN’s database. Proper behind Peters was Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who obtained $50,000 from the trade within the first six months of 2021. McMorris Rodgers was chosen this yr to be essentially the most senior Republican on the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee, which has vital affect on pharmaceutical points. Peters sits on the identical committee.
“They’re usually going to saturate the committees which might be related to their trade,” mentioned Nick Penniman, CEO of Subject One, a nonprofit that advocates reforming cash’s affect in politics.
Subsequent in line was Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who accepted $49,300, essentially the most of any senator this yr regardless of not dealing with reelection till 2024. The vote of Menendez, a longtime ally of the trade, can be essential for Democrats to move any proposal giving the federal government better management over drug costs. The pharmaceutical trade is a serious employer in New Jersey, house to headquarters of behemoths like Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi.
Menendez mentioned he’s ready to see the proposal, “which I count on will embody language to permit Medicare to barter drug costs.”
“The main target of any proposal have to be decreasing affected person prices,” he mentioned, “and that can drive my evaluation.”
Amongst different average Democrats is Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), whose vote is also essential to passage. She obtained $108,500 in pharma contributions in 2019-20, in accordance with the KHN database. Nevertheless, within the first half of this yr, she obtained solely $8,000. She has not mentioned publicly the place she stands on the present pricing proposal.
As Billet sees it, the pharmaceutical trade knew permitting Medicare to barter drug costs would seemingly be on the desk, and drug corporations shored up members, corresponding to Peters and Menendez, who’ve sided with them prior to now. Plus, “proper now, the Democrats are driving the prepare, and due to that they’re going to get a number of extra contributions,” Billet added.
Peters obtained funds from practically two dozen corporations or trade teams, together with Eli Lilly, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, EMD Serono and Amgen. Menendez’s donors included Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, Pfizer, Merck, Gilead Sciences, Eli Lilly, Teva and Novo Nordisk. A spokesperson for Peters didn’t reply to request for remark.
Controlling drug costs has broad assist amongst adults no matter political social gathering, in accordance with polling from KFF (KHN is an editorially impartial program of KFF). However dealing with trade opposition, Democrats have but to agree on a plan as lawmakers weigh which insurance policies make it into a large home spending invoice to develop the social security web and handle local weather change. Central to the trade’s argument is that better authorities intervention in setting costs would hurt new drug growth; nonetheless, drug pricing consultants typically say this argument is overblown. Republicans stay unanimously opposed, which suggests Senate Democrats can’t afford any defections to advance laws.
Fourth in trade contributions was Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), a freshman lawmaker on the highly effective Senate Finance Committee, which oversees laws pertaining to federal well being packages like Medicare. Cortez Masto obtained $46,000, with money flowing in from corporations like Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Mallinckrodt Prescription drugs, the latter of which filed for chapter in 2020 after being swamped with litigation over its alleged function within the opioid disaster. Certainly one of her current aides, Eben DuRoss, was employed as a lobbyist this yr by the Pharmaceutical Analysis and Producers of America, or PhRMA, federal disclosures present.
Cortez Masto is up for reelection subsequent yr in a battleground state that’s been aggressive between Republicans and Democrats in current elections. She was narrowly elected in 2016, and up to date polling confirmed she held a small lead in opposition to her anticipated Republican challenger in 2022, former Nevada legal professional basic Adam Laxalt.
However her contributions dwarf these of different Senate Democrats in shut races. For instance, within the first half of this yr, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who additionally sits on the Senate Finance Committee, reported having accepted $6,000.
Two different lawmakers in aggressive seats, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), didn’t obtain funding from the pharmaceutical sector.
Sarah Bryner, analysis director of OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks cash in politics, famous a number of causes Cortez Masto would pull in extra money. Along with her committee seat and aggressive race, politically she’s extra average than progressive lawmakers who’ve been greater agitators in opposition to the drug trade.
“She’s not seen as an extremist, which is the type of one that would usually soak up extra money” from political motion committees, Bryner mentioned.
Cortez Masto was additionally a current previous chair of the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee and subsequently closely concerned within the social gathering’s nationwide fundraising efforts to protect Democrats’ Senate majority. These relationships with company and different donors might be leveraged for her personal race, Bryner mentioned. “When you’ve made all of the relationships, it’s not like they simply disappear,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless, the freshman Democrat has openly supported permitting Medicare to barter prescription drug costs, in distinction to Menendez, who voted in opposition to the thought in 2019. The Nevada senator lately instructed KHN that she “completely” backs the coverage and that the pharma money flowing into her marketing campaign coffers doesn’t affect her selections.
“I’ve already supported it in Finance and really voted to move laws to just do that,” Cortez Masto mentioned. “We have to scale back the healthcare prices for thus many on this nation, and that’s what I’m centered on doing, together with lowering prescription drug prices.”
Peters — who unseated a Republican in 2012 — was one among 4 average Home Democrats who in September voted in opposition to a plan to provide Medicare broad authority to barter prescription drug costs. They backed a narrower different that features caps on out-of-pocket spending and limits the scope of Medicare’s negotiating authority to a smaller set of medicines.
The cash Peters and McMorris Rodgers obtained from drugmakers ($63,900 and $50,000, respectively) considerably jumped from the identical durations in previous cycles. Within the first half of 2019, Peters obtained $19,500, and through those self same quarters in 2017 he obtained $36,000. McMorris Rodgers’ haul for the primary six months of 2019 was $2,500, and two years earlier it was $3,000. Nevertheless, Menendez obtained extra funding within the first half of 2019 ($52,000) than this yr.
That some drugmakers — together with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead and Eli Lilly — in addition to PhRMA and the Biotechnology Innovation Group, one other lobbying group for the trade, paused contributions to Republicans after the occasions of Jan. 6 appears at the least partially to account for total pharma contributions dropping compared with different years. Within the first half of 2019 drugmakers gave $3.7 million, and within the first half of 2017 they gave about $4.4 million, versus 2021’s $1.6 million.
Nevertheless, different drug firm PACs and their trade teams saved up contributions or didn’t void checks they’d issued to those that refused to certify the election outcomes, in accordance with a KHN evaluation of the FEC information.
They embody Merck, Novo Nordisk, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Boehringer Ingelheim, Amgen, Teva, EMD Serono and the Affiliation for Accessible Medicines, which all gave $1,000 or extra to at the least one of many 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election outcomes.
Direct contributions to lawmakers’ political accounts are just one method for the trade to channel money to Congress. Corporations additionally give cash to commerce associations and 501(C)(4)s, that are nonprofits that usually perform as “darkish cash” teams as a result of they don’t seem to be required to reveal their donors.
“We all know that they’re giving; they didn’t cease giving. Their giving went underground,” mentioned Carlos Holguin, analysis director for the Heart for Political Accountability, a nonprofit that tracks cash in politics.
Teams additionally funnel cash into promoting — in September, PhRMA announced a seven-figure advert marketing campaign opposing Democrats’ drug pricing plan — or into advocacy groups from which it might ultimately trickle right down to political candidates.
One other issue? Hail Mary COVID-19 vaccines, developed and distributed in document time, which will have shored up goodwill with lawmakers. Or that, regardless of every little thing lawmakers have mentioned about decreasing drug prices, the trade suspects drug pricing laws will stall as soon as once more and don’t need to spend their political capital on the difficulty.
“I feel, frankly, drugmakers know they’ve gained the match in terms of drug pricing. This entire query of the price of prescription drugs, it has come up for actually a long time now they usually have efficiently shut it down, yr after yr,” Penniman mentioned. “At a sure level, they know they’ve pushed the nail far sufficient within the wooden they usually don’t must do far more.”
Kaiser Well being Information is a nationwide well being coverage information service. It’s an editorially impartial program of the Henry J. Kaiser Household Basis which isn’t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
