Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Myth of American Innovation

Over the last decade, pharmaceutical companies have spent close to $2.5 billion lobbying members of congress, including hundreds of millions of dollars to help shape and promote the passage of Obamacare (which resulted in around $35 billion in additional profits for the industry). For years, politicians from across the political spectrum have given Big Pharma a pass. So, when this clip surfaced of an exchange between Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard during congressional hearings on the drug industry earlier this year, it was an eye-opener. With just two questions, Ocasio-Cortez punctured a gaping hole in the myth of pharmaceutical innovation: