Big Pharma's big donations to 2016 presidential candidates
By Nadia Kounang, CNN
Story highlights
Pharmaceutical companies have donated nearly $1 million in the 2016 presidential election cycle
More than a third of all donations went to Hilary Clinton
Health care industry overall has donated over $9.5 million
(CNN) — When former Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli announced that he was increasing the price of an HIV drug called Daraprim by nearly 5,000%, he turned the cost of prescription drugs into a political issue.
Shortly after Daraprim's price increase was made public, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled a prescription drug plan to drive prices down. Her Democratic challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, sent a letter to Shkreli demanding an explanation for the price increase and when Shkreli donated to his campaign, Sanders took that donation and gave it to a health clinic. Republican candidate Donald Trump called Shkreli a "spoiled brat" and said "he ought to be ashamed of himself."
But despite all the drama and talk of standing up to the pharmaceutical industry, these companies continue to be big spenders, donating $951,018 to presidential candidates in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission.
Their biggest recipient? Clinton. She collected $336,416 in donations, over a third of the total contributions during the 2016 presidential campaign. The next biggest recipient was Republican candidate Jeb Bush, who collected less than half the amount of Clinton. Trump received the least in donations: $1,010, enough to buy one Daraprim pill.
Sanders' and Clinton's drug plans would give the government a bigger role in negotiating drug prices. Clinton wants the government-run Medicare to have a say in negotiating the price of drugs. Currently Medicare -- one of the largest buyers of prescription drugs in America -- has no seat at the negotiating table. Sanders also wants Medicare to leverage its bargaining power when it comes to prescription drugs, as well as import prescription drugs from Canada.
The contributions to Clinton and Bush came last year, when no one knew who the front-runner would be by now. "Established industries and lobbies give primarily to establishment candidates that they perceive will be leaders and eventual nominees," said Scott Swenson, vice president for communications for Common Cause, a nonprofit political watchdog group. As Swenson explained it, early money is like a "bet" on likely winners.
The pharmaceutical industry is the 15th most generous industry in terms of donations so far in the 2016 presidential election. The health industry overall -- combining health professionals, hospitals, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies -- donated over $9.5 million to the 2016 presidential candidates, making it the third largest donating industry. Clinton continues to be the biggest beneficiary from this group, receiving more than $3.5 million in donations. The next candidate in line is Ted Cruz, who received just over $1.1 million in health care industry donations.
These donations don't include how much corporations also spend on lobbying Congress. For example, Pfizer, one of the most influential and largest pharmaceutical companies, spent more than $10 million in lobbying efforts last year. Lobbying money has traditionally followed large health care initiatives. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the health care industry hit record lobbying limits in 2009, spending nearly $273 million around the time the Affordable Care Act was being debated in Congress.
Follow CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.
Hillary Clinton......Shady n Scheming LIAR. SO many lies-how is it she is even running for president, I don't get at all.
Do you recall the slime that was Whitewater, in which the Clintons dissembled and lied while their former business partners went to jail?” – You can find a detailed summary of the Whitewater Scandal, from 1978 to 1995, by going to te web site" Live Trading News reports"- serious crimes were uncovered, The 1st independent prosecutor in the Whitewater investigation said that he had uncovered “serious crimes” and was ready to indict top Arkansas figures based on testimony from a Key witness against former US President Bill Clinton before he was abruptly replaced by a panel of federal judges. Remember Vince Foster? He was the Whitehouse Deputy Council and the keeper of the files of the Clinton's Arkansas dealings and had indicated in a hand written memo that "Whitewater was a can of worms that you should NOT open!. A little FYI- Vince and Hillary were fucking(gacK!!)since the days of their partnership at The Rose Law firm in Little Rock right up til the Whitehouse.
He confided in friend's that he was going to resign. Instead SOMEONE decided he had to be silenced. Foster spent the morning of July 20,,1993 in his office and also attended a White House
announcement early that day-
This is a key point. The White House is the most secure private residence in the world, equipped with a sophisticated entry control system and video surveillance system installed by the Mitre Corporation. Yet no record exists that Vincent Foster left the White House under his own power on July 20th, 1993. No video of him exiting the building exists. No logbook entry shows he checked out of the White House. His body was found in Fort Marcy Park, where he was MURDERED, er, um I mean committed suicide.....his office was looted-documents magically disappeared, even his pager was erased. But my point is Hillary(and Bill) but mainly Hillary pulled the strings-she has caused so much damage.
#LOCKHERUP
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Need help or a chat ?
