We’re late out of the gate on this one, but the numbers still bear mentioning – a report from the Center for Public Integrity out last month showed that the pharmaceutical industry’s been getting its money’s worth on K Street. Good news for the industry, because those expenditures totaled $168 million in 2007, up 32 percent in a year. Bad news for those concerned that pharma’s influence on the Hill and on its own regulation is already too big.
In the win column for the industry in 2007: the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, and a blocked bill that would have permitted drug reimportation.
The eye-opening stat for PostScript? “More than $6.8 million of the $14.4 million the pharmaceutical and health product industry gave in contributions went to members of three committees that regulate the industry: the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, House Committee on Ways and Means, and Senate Committee on Health, Education, and Labor.”
And while some may still hold out hopes of Karl Rove’s ‘permanent majority’, this report made it clear that pharma isn’t among them – support for candidates by party has swung widely since the Dems’ 2006 takeover, and for the first time in history, Democratic candidates received more funding from the industry than Republicans did.