Drug firms arming for battle at ballot box: $43 million in past month...

[Newsjock]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/13/DRUGS.TMP

Drug firms arming for battle at ballot box
$43 million in past month poured into state in fight over prescription discounts
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Wednesday, July 13, 2005

In the past month, drug companies from across the nation have raised more than $43 million to challenge a union-backed initiative on the Nov. 8 special election ballot that would cut prescription drug prices for a wide range of California residents.

Giant pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have pumped more than $8.5 million each into the industry's California Initiative Fund, which also is financing Proposition 78, a rival drug cost measure on the special election ballot.

The drug industry has collected a total of more than $53 million thus far for the initiative battle, an indication of how important the fight over prescription drug costs is to the industry.

"Their fund raising is astronomical, and obviously they're scared,'' said Robin Swanson, a spokeswoman for the Alliance for a Better California, a union-funded group that put the Proposition 79 drug cost measure on the ballot. "They wouldn't invest that kind of money if they didn't have something to lose.''

more

[TahitiNut]

1. That's $53 million in overpricing for drugs, then.

If the industry has that many millions to toss around on political advertsing in one state (even though the best and largest), then they're gouging the ill and aged to fill their treasuries.

[shelley806]

2. Bingo!

And that is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg I'm afraid. Just imagine how much they spend on advertsing nonsense drugs that end up becoming a pseudo-'need.' Ever seen TV ads for Prozac, Viagra, etc.? The Drug/Pharmaceutical Industry is quite corrupt, and will only become more so under this administration, that panders to big profit making companies who pay for their political ambitions. Want to guess what %age of these drug co.'s goes to research? And I mean 'real' research here, not just re-designing drugs to protect patents to keep them in the non-generic category, and thus to remain expensive. Research expenditures are minimal in comparison to marketing and political expenses.