Last week, Politico exposed the pharmaceutical lobbyist organization, PhRMA, for their $7.5 million contribution to the American Action Network—a Republican dark money group with ties to Washington Republican leadership. This is PhRMA’s largest donation ever given to the group, after spending millions last year to oppose Democrats’ drug pricing reform.
“Millions of Americans struggle to afford life-saving medications while Big Pharma and healthcare corporations make out like bandits,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “As long as corporate special interests are allowed to buy members of Congress through dark money corruption, the American people will continue to suffer.”
Politico Pro: Amid drug pricing battle, PhRMA gave House GOP-linked group $7.5 million
Megan R. Wilson and Caitlin Oprysko
11/21/23
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The pharmaceutical industry’s leading lobbying organization contributed $7.5 million to the American Action Network last year, a group linked to House Republicans, according to an analysis of 2022 tax forms.
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It’s the most PhRMA has ever given to the group in a year, though the network has received $34.5 million in PhRMA cash since 2010, according to Issue One, a campaign finance reform advocacy group.
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American Action Network spent millions on advertising in 2022 opposing Democrats’ drug pricing reform efforts, as part of a yearslong campaign against the proposals, which eventually became law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
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The law ultimately ordered Medicare to negotiate prices for a small number of drugs, less ambitious than a Democratic proposal that passed the House in 2019.
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A POLITICO analysis of the industry group’s most recent tax forms show that the contribution was among the top five grants or donations PhRMA made in 2022. In total, PhRMA gave nearly $52 million to political campaigns and nonprofits, patient groups, universities and other organizations, according to the recently filed disclosures.
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The largest donation went to PhRMA-backed advocacy group We Work for Health, which lobbies on the drugmakers’ top issues — including drug pricing and pharmacy benefit manager reforms. Another PhRMA-backed advocacy group that aims to fight the opioid crisis, the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative, received $2 million last year.
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In addition to the $7.5 million it gave to the American Action Network, PhRMA also contributed $200,000 to the American Action Forum, an affiliated nonprofit that is allowed to conduct some lobbying. Neither group has to disclose its donors.
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PhRMA also gave $1.6 million to Center Forward, another “dark money” group. It is aligned with the moderate Blue Dog Democrats. The contribution is less than the $1.7 million PhRMA sent to the nonprofit in 2021 and the $2.7 million it contributed in 2020, but the seven-figure check to Center Forward last year made PhRMA the group’s second-largest donor, according to Center Forward’s tax filings.
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Center Forward, chaired by former Rep. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.), spent millions on ads in 2021 boosting critics of Democrats’ drug pricing proposals.
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Last year, the group funneled a little over $2 million to its affiliated super PAC, its tax filing shows.
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The super PAC in turn spent more than $1 million on independent expenditures supporting one of the drug pricing proposal’s top congressional critics, former Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, and attacking the primary opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who ultimately defeated the seven-term Democrat, according to data from OpenSecrets.
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