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Lt Col Charlie Brown
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A new analysis by the corporate and government watchdog group Accountable.US found while drugmakers spent $147 million to kill lower drug prices, major pharmaceutical CEOs raked in over $292.6 million and corporate profits skyrocketed.
Money was spent on lobbying Congress
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MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
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'Perzactly.
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MSG Roy Cheever
MSG Roy Cheever
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Of course! And this was reported by Tucker Carlson.
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LTC Stephen F.
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Edited >1 y ago
Thank you my friend MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. for posting the perspective from {childrenshealthdefense.org/ author Jake Johnson
Lori Gregory | Exposing Medical Fraud and the Corruption of Big Pharma
https://rumble.com/v1c626z-lori-gregory-the-great-reset-versus-the-great-reawakening-.html





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Big Pharma Spent $147 Million During Pandemic to Keep Drug Prices High
A new analysis by the corporate and government watchdog group Accountable.US found while drugmakers spent $147 million to kill lower drug prices, major pharmaceutical CEOs raked in over $292.6 million and corporate profits skyrocketed.

New research published Wednesday shows that since the coronavirus pandemic began more than two years ago, the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the United States have spent nearly $150 million lobbying against Democratic proposals to lower the country’s increasingly outlandish drug prices.

The analysis by the corporate and government watchdog group Accountable.US estimates that Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, AbbVie and Merck poured a combined $147.3 million into lobbying Congress since 2020.

“Meanwhile, major pharmaceutical CEOs raked in over $292.6 million” as “their companies saw skyrocketing profits,” the report notes.

“Big Pharma, like many other industries, knows they cannot justify raising prices so high at the same time they boast of excessive profits, generous CEO bonuses and huge shareholder payouts,” said Accountable.US spokesperson Liz Zelnick.

“That is why the big drug companies spend so massively lobbying to keep the market rigged in their favor and seniors at their mercy, including many literally choosing between food and medicine.”

“It is time the conservatives in Congress who complain constantly about inflation finally do something constructive about it — and there’s no better place to start than allowing Medicare to finally negotiate lower drug prices,” Zelnick added.

“What really matters most to these lawmakers: bringing down costs for seniors, or looking out for the bottom line of their big drug company donors?”

The fresh research on Big Pharma’s influence-peddling comes as Senate Democrats are working toward a compromise proposal that would allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of a small subset of prescription medicines directly with drug firms that have been pushing up costs with abandon for years.

In 2021, according to one recent study, nearly 18 million U.S. adults couldn’t afford at least one medication prescribed by their doctor.

In its current form, the new Democratic plan would cap Medicare Part D enrollees’ out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 annually, penalize pharmaceutical companies that raise prices at a faster rate than inflation and require Medicare to negotiate the prices of a limited number of drugs.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the measure would save the U.S. — which spends far more on prescription drugs than other wealthy nations — $290 billion over 10 years.

Unsurprisingly, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — the drug industry’s trade group — has denounced the proposal, decrying its “sweeping government price-setting policies.”

Last year, Big Pharma spent heavily to weaken an earlier Democratic drug pricing plan that was ultimately scrapped thanks in large part to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

While it’s despised by the pharmaceutical industry — whose lobbyists on Capitol Hill outnumber members of Congress — the idea of allowing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices is broadly popular with the U.S. public, garnering more than 80% support across party lines in some polling.

“Giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices is popular, necessary and will save lives,” the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works said Wednesday. “Now it’s time for Democrats in Congress to deliver for us.”

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LTC Stephen F.
LTC Stephen F.
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Former Big Pharma Rep Brandy Vaughn Explains How Pharmaceutical Companies Put Profits Before People
Brandy Vaughn's Non-Profit:
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest moneymakers in the world, with more than a trillion dollars in profits every year. It’s an industry that heavily influences our healthcare system, yet, it only profits when people are sick. Many people don’t realize that there’s no money made off healthy people.

Here are ten things you should know:
1. The fourth-leading cause of death in the US is taking prescription pills as directed. About 128,000 people die from drugs prescribed to them in the US per year. The European Commission estimates that adverse reactions from prescription drugs cause 200,000 deaths; so together, about 328,000 patients in the U.S. and Europe die from prescription drugs each year. The FDA does not acknowledge these facts and instead gathers a small fraction of the cases.

2. The pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline has been fined $3bn (£1.9bn) after admitting to bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children.

3. Academic research has now been heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry with major universities and medical schools allowing the industry access to students.

4. Top medical journal editors state that most medical journals are now so heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry that almost HALF of all scientific studies are biased.

5. More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) outside established pediatric guidelines.

6. Members of the CDC and FDA responsible for licensing and recommending vaccines are permitted to have financial stakes in those vaccines: The CDC grants conflict of interest waivers to every member of their advisory committee a year at a time, and allows full participation in the discussions leading up to a vote by every member.

7. An analysis of 2013 IMS Data, found that over 274,000 infants (0-1-year-olds) and some 370,000 toddlers (1-3 years ago) in the U.S. were on anti-anxiety (e.g. Xanax) and antidepressant (e.g. Prozac) drugs.

8. 40% of scientists admit that fraud is always or often a factor that contributes to irreproducible research. More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments.

9. The US government has been suing Merck for several years in an ongoing private case that alleges that Merck attempted to: “Defraud the United States through an ongoing scheme to sell the government a mumps vaccine that is mislabeled, misbranded, adulterated, and falsely certified as having an efficacy rate that is significantly higher than it actually is.”

10. The pharmaceutical industry spends more money marketing it’s products — and creating customers — than on research and development. “Prescription drugs are a massive market: Americans spent $329.2 billion on prescription drugs in 2013. That works out to about $1,000 per person. Drug companies spent more than $3 billion a year marketing to consumers in the U.S. in 2012, but an estimated $24 billion marketing directly to health care professionals.” These figures trump the amount spent on research and development for 9 out of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.
https://rumble.com/v184f4l-brandy-vaughn-explains-how-pharmaceutical-companies-put-profits-before-pati.html

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MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
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Thanks for the additional info!
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Maj Robert Thornton
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I have no issue with companies making a profit, that’s why they are in business. But to keep prices high, to make exorbitant profits is just greed. It’s time to rein these corporations in and allow Medicare to negotiate prices. IMHO
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MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
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Exactly so!
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