Red Carpet Treatment by the GOP:
$250,000
Annual Profits of the Top 14 Pharmaceutical Industry:
$38
billion
Getting to Torpedo Any Serious Medicare Rx Drug Benefit:
PRICELESS
Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today condemned the Republican Party
for soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars from major drug companies
as part of a $30 million fundraiser at the same time the Congress is
taking up legislation to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The
drug giants are among the most generous contributors to the event. The
chief operating officer of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is the chief
corporate fundraiser of the event. His firm contributed $250,000, as did
the drug companies’ trade group PhRMA. Pfizer, Inc. contributed $100,000
to the event, which earned it the positions of vice chairman. Eli Lilly,
Bayer AG, and Merck each contributed $50,000. These huge drug company
contributions are designed to payoff those who are trying to prevent any
serious Medicare prescription drug bill from being enacted by the
Congress. As reported in the Washington Post, a senior GOP aide admitted
that “Republicans are working hard behind the scenes on behalf of PhRMA to
make sure that the party’s prescription drug plan for the elderly suits
drug companies.”
Sanders said, “It is downright sickening that two days after
Republicans unveiled their sham so-called ‘Medicare prescription drug
plan’ they are shamelessly panhandling the drug industry that wrote the
plan. ‘Want to chair the fundraising event? $250,000. Vice Chair? That’ll
be $100,000. Sponsor a table? Why, it’s a paltry $50,000. Now … by the
way, how do you like that prescription drug bill?’ What a disgusting
display of corporate ownership and control of the political process!”
Two Congressional committees are marking up Medicare prescription drug
legislation this week. The PhRMA-backed Republican plan would cover only a
fraction of a senior’s first $4,000 in drug costs. Sanders’ plan, by
contrast, would cover 80% of all drug costs with any cost over $2,000
being covered 100%. In addition, the Sanders’ bill will help drive down
the cost of drugs by allowing U.S. pharmacists to access lower priced
FDA-approved medicines from Canada and other countries and by requiring
that drugs developed at U.S.-taxpayer expense be sold at reasonable prices
in the U.S. These price-lowering measures are anathema to the drug giants
who want to protect their bloated profits.
Sanders said, “On one hand we have PhRMA sitting at the Republicans’
schmooze-fest and signing off on every detail of the GOP’s drug plan. On
the other, we have thousands of seniors sitting at home being forced to
decide whether to cut their prescription drugs in half or take a few more
items off their grocery list. The devastating truth is that the tactics of
PhRMA and House Republicans is literally costing thousands of seniors
their health and some even their lives.”
According to the Post, organizers have begun asking $100,000
donors to take just one table, instead of the four to which they are
entitled, to accommodate the swarm of industry interests looking for a
seat at the table.
For More Information:
Visit the PRESCRIPTIONS
section.
Contact:
Joel Barkin at (202) 225-4115
