The pharmaceutical and health product industries have spent a total of $4.7 billion on lobbying the federal government, $877 million on state candidates and committees, and $414 million on presidential and congressional electoral campaigns, national party committees, and outside spending groups between 1999-2018.

This spending was paralleled by an increase in per-person spending on prescription drugs from 1999 ($510/person, adjusted for inflation) to 2017 ($1025/person, adjusted for inflation). It’s no wonder that even when legislation beneficial to consumers is passed it tends to be weak and ineffective. Thanks to Citizens United, our politics and our lives are awash in big money.