The Center for Public Integrity and the Associated Press teamed up to investigate the influence of pharmaceutical companies amidst a prescription drug epidemic that has claimed 165,000 American lives since 2000. What they found was nothing short of shocking. From the Associated Press:
— Drug companies and allied advocates spent more than $880 million on lobbying and political contributions at the state and federal level over the past decade; by comparison, a handful of groups advocating for opioid limits spent $4 million. The money covered a range of political activities important to the drug industry, including legislation and regulations related to opioids.
—The opioid industry and its allies contributed to roughly 7,100 candidates for state-level offices, with the largest amounts going to governors and the lawmakers who control legislative agendas, such as house speakers, senate presidents and health committee chairs.
— The drug companies and allied groups have an army of lobbyists averaging 1,350 per year, covering all 50 state capitals.
— The opioid lobby's political spending adds up to more than eight times what the formidable gun lobby recorded for political activities during the same period.
Emphasis added on that last bullet point. Spending eight times what the gun lobby spends to influence politicians is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Big Pharma has funneled the money through a little known group:
For more than a decade, members of a little-known group called the Pain Care Forum have blanketed Washington with messages touting prescription painkillers’ vital role in the lives of millions of Americans, creating an echo chamber that has quietly derailed efforts to curb U.S. consumption of the drugs, which accounts for two-thirds of the world’s usage.
Their spending has touched and influence all 50 states:
Painkillers are among the most widely prescribed medications in the U.S., but pharmaceutical companies and allied groups have a multitude of legislative interests beyond those drugs. From 2006 through 2015, participants in the Pain Care Forum spent over $740 million lobbying in the nation’s capital and in all 50 statehouses on an array of issues, including opioid-related measures, according to an analysis of lobbying filings by the Center for Public Integrity and AP.
Opponents of the (often deadly) prescription painkiller industry have been heavily outspent:
That combined spending on lobbying and campaigns amounts to more than 200 times the $4 million spent during the same period by the handful of groups that work for restrictions on painkillers. Meanwhile, opioid sales reached $9.6 billion last year, according to IMS Health, a health information company.
“You can go a long, long way in getting what you want when you have a lot of money,” said Professor Keith Humphreys of Stanford University, a former adviser on drug policy under President Barack Obama. “And it’s only when things get so disastrous that finally there’s enough popular will aroused to push back.”
If the deaths of 165,000 isn’t enough generate pushback against the painkiller industry, what will it take? How many more deaths before the government stands up and demands greater accountability from Big Pharma?