{"id":271510,"date":"2020-10-11T05:02:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T09:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=271510"},"modified":"2020-10-11T05:02:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T09:02:03","slug":"as-trump-touts-his-great-covid-drugs-the-pharma-cash-flows-to-biden-not-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/11\/as-trump-touts-his-great-covid-drugs-the-pharma-cash-flows-to-biden-not-him\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump Touts His \u2018Great\u2019 COVID Drugs, the Pharma Cash Flows to Biden, Not Him"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Yet as his campaign for reelection enters its final stretch, Trump is not feeling the love in campaign contributions. Regeneron, Gilead, Lilly and the industry as a whole are sending more money elsewhere. (File photo<\/a>: The White House\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pharmaceutical giants Regeneron and Gilead Sciences got the kind of publicity money can\u2019t buy this week after President Donald Trump took their experimental drugs for his coronavirus infection, left the hospital and pronounced himself fully recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, like, unbelievable. I felt good immediately,\u201d Trump said Wednesday in a tweeted video<\/a>. \u201cI call that a cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

He praised Regeneron\u2019s monoclonal antibody cocktail, which mimics elements of the immune system, and mentioned a similar drug under investigation by Eli Lilly and Co. The president also took Gilead\u2019s remdesivir, an antiviral that has shortened recovery times for COVID-19 patients in early research.<\/p>\n

There is no scientific evidence that any of these drugs contributed to the president\u2019s recovery, since many patients do fine without them. It is also not known whether the president has been \u201ccured,\u201d since the White House has released few specifics about the course of his illness.<\/p>\n

Yet as his campaign for reelection enters its final stretch, Trump is not feeling the love in campaign contributions. Regeneron, Gilead, Lilly and the industry as a whole are sending more money elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Reversing a trend in which contributions from drugmakers\u2019 political committees and their employees have gone largely to Republican candidates<\/a> for president and Congress, so far for 2020 the industry has tilted toward Democrats.<\/p>\n

The shift may reflect industry expectations that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will win, said Steven Billet, who teaches courses in corporate lobbying and political donations at George Washington University. Pharma companies may see campaign largesse as leverage if Biden follows through on promises to address high drug prices, he said.<\/p>\n

In a year when complaints about high prescription drug prices have been overshadowed by the pandemic, donors with ties to pharma manufacturers have given around $976,000 to Biden, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics<\/a>. That\u2019s nearly three times the pharma contributions to Trump, who recently switched his tune from complaining about \u201crip-off\u201d prescription prices to describing drug firms as \u201cgreat companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally the industry tends to favor Republicans,\u201d said Sarah Bryner, CRP\u2019s research director. \u201cBut this cycle, we\u2019re seeing that flipped,\u201d partly reflecting Democrats\u2019 overall greater success in fundraising, she said.<\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical companies and their trade groups have a history of supporting Trump <\/a>and other Republicans indirectly through hard-to-trace \u201cdark money\u201d nonprofits. But those contributions may not be disclosed until long after the election, if ever.<\/p>\n

Of $177,000 given so far to 2020 federal candidates by Regeneron\u2019s employees and political action committee, four-fifths have gone to Democrats<\/a>, including $35,203 to Biden, according to CRP.<\/p>\n

Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, a billionaire who has known Trump for years and belongs to the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in New York\u2019s Westchester County, has a long history of giving to Democrats. He gave $5,400 to Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential run and $120,000 in 2018 to a political action committee attempting to flip the Senate to Democratic control.<\/p>\n

Schleifer has made no registered political donations since last year, when his contributions went mainly to his son, Adam Schleifer, a Democrat running for Congress who lost in a primary this summer.<\/p>\n

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, representing a state with a large biotech industry and running for reelection in a tight race, has been the biggest Republican recipient of Regeneron dollars for 2020 races, tallying $5,526 so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a company that looks as though they\u2019ve always been committed to Democrats,\u201d said Billet, a former AT&T lobbyist who teaches PAC management. \u201cAnd my guess is they just have a Democratic culture in this company.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Regeneron, which has applied for emergency use authorization to bypass the Food and Drug Administration approval process for its drug, declined to comment on campaign donations and said the company will continue clinical trials.<\/p>\n

The drug is expected to cost thousands of dollars per dose. \u201cYou\u2019re going to get them for free,\u201d Trump said of the COVID-19 drugs he took. The government has agreed to make initial doses of Regeneron\u2019s antibody treatment \u201cavailable to the American people at no cost,\u201d the company says.<\/a><\/p>\n

But details of the contract, including the price, remained secret. In any event, if patients get the drug at no direct cost, \u201cit doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not paying for it,\u201d said James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit that works to expand access to medical technology. \u201cThey\u2019re just paying for it through taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government is giving Regeneron $450 million<\/a> to make and supply the antibody cocktail.<\/p>\n

Donors with Gilead ties also lean left, giving two-thirds of their roughly $284,000 <\/a>in contributions so far this cycle to Democratic candidates for Congress and president, the CRP data shows, including about $36,000 to Biden.<\/p>\n

At Lilly, where Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar once ran the U.S. division, 54% of the money has gone to Democrats<\/a> and 46% to Republicans. Lilly employees have given $45,000 to Biden and $13,000 to Trump, according to CRP.<\/p>\n

Biden does not accept donations from corporate PACs; all his Regeneron, Lilly and Gilead dollars came from their employees.<\/p>\n

Much of this year\u2019s overall pharma shift to Democrats comes in the presidential race. KHN\u2019s Pharma Cash to Congress<\/a> data tracking sitting members still shows a preference this cycle of pharma PACs targeting congressional Republicans, $6 million so far compared with $4.7 million given to Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Biden has Big Pharma \u2014 as well as Big Tech and big banks \u2014 in his pocket because he\u2019s worked for them for nearly 50 years, rather than the American people,\u201d said Samantha Zager, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Biden has focused largely on improving health insurance. But he also proposes<\/a> letting Medicare negotiate drug prices, tying drug-price increases to inflation and allowing patients to buy imported pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

Biden \u201cwill further reduce health care costs while expanding coverage, end practices like surprise billing, lower premiums and stand up to abuses of power by prescription drug companies,\u201d said campaign spokesperson Rosemary Boeglin.<\/p>\n

Before Trump took office, he said pharma companies were \u201cgetting away with murder\u201d over the prices they charge. Despite the president\u2019s claims and promises, he has done little to lower prescription drug prices, according to experts<\/a> and fact-checkers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Trump executive order this month would require Medicare to pay no more for drugs than other developed nations, but it starts with a test program and could take months<\/a> or years to implement.<\/p>\n

Pharma companies were among the biggest beneficiaries of Trump\u2019s 2017 tax cut<\/a>, saving billions by being able to bring home untaxed foreign cash and billions more in lower rates.<\/p>\n

KHN data editor Elizabeth Lucas contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kaiser Health News<\/a> (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation<\/a> which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.<\/em><\/p>\n

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