For decades, the global pharmaceutical industry has spread a deceptive narrative justifying the ever-increasing, sky-high prices of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics as something necessary and inevitable.

Yet pharmaceutical corporations continue to perpetuate a series of myths about the development costs and pricing of medicines and other health products in order to protect their profit-maximizing practices – at the expense of people’s lives.

List of U.S. Senators with Pharmaceutical Contributions (1990-2024):

1. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): $600,000
2. John Barrasso (R-WY): $500,000
3. Michael Bennet (D-CO): $1,500,000
4. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): $600,000
5. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE): $320,793
6. John Boozman (R-AR): $200,000
7. Mike Braun (R-IN): $150,000
8. Katie Britt (R-AL): $50,000
9. Ted Budd (R-NC): $100,000
10. Laphonza Butler (D-CA): $50,000
11. Maria Cantwell (D-WA): $200,000
12. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV):
$300,000
13. Ben Cardin (D-MD): $1,200,000
14. Tom Carper (D-DE): $800,000
15. Bob Casey (D-PA): $1,790,780
16. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): $600,000
17. Susan Collins (R-ME): $700,000
18. Chris Coons (D-DE): $400,000
19. John Cornyn (R-TX): $900,000
20. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV):
$421,000
21. Kevin Cramer (R-ND): $150,000
22. Mike Crapo (R-ID): $600,000
23. Ted Cruz (R-TX): $300,000
24. John Curtis (R-UT): $450,000
25. Steve Daines (R-MT): $200,000
26. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL): $150,000
27. Dick Durbin (D-IL): $1,000,000
28. Joni Ernst (R-IA): $150,000
29. Deb Fischer (R-NE): $200,000
30. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): $244,135
31. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY): $800,000
32. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): $500,000
33. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): $400,000
34. Bill Hagerty (R-TN): $100,000
35. Maggie Hassan (D-NH): $90,000
36. Josh Hawley (R-MO): $100,000
37. Martin Heinrich (D-NM): $300,000
38. George Helmy (D-NJ): $10,000
39. John Hickenlooper (D-CO): $200,000
40. Mazie Hirono (D-HI): $200,000
41. John Hoeven (R-ND): $250,000
42. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS): $100,000
43. Jim Justice (R-WV): $50,000
44. Ron Johnson (R-WI): $300,000
45. Tim Kaine (D-VA): $600,000
46. Mark Kelly (D-AZ): $100,000
47. John Kennedy (R-LA): $200,000
48. Andy Kim (D-NJ): $106,778
49. Angus King (I-ME): $150,000
50. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): $700,000
51. James Lankford (R-OK): $150,000
52. Mike Lee (R-UT): $100,000
53. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM): $200,000
54. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY): $50,000
55. Joe Manchin (I-WV): $600,000
56. Ed Markey (D-MA): $400,000
57. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): $2,020,462
58. Bob Menendez (D-NJ): $1,474,575
59. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): $200,000
60. Jerry Moran (R-KS): $300,000
61. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK): $100,000
62. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): $400,000
63. Chris Murphy (D-CT): $300,000
64. Patty Murray (D-WA): $1,000,000
65. Rand Paul (R-KY): $100,000
66. Gary Peters (D-MI): $400,000
67. Jack Reed (D-RI): $300,000
68. Pete Ricketts (R-NE): $100,000
69. Jim Risch (R-ID): $150,000
70. Mitt Romney (R-UT): $2,700,392
71. Jacky Rosen (D-NV): $300,000
72. Mike Rounds (R-SD): $150,000
73. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): $1,918,361
74. Brian Schatz (D-HI): $200,000
75. Adam Schiff (D-CA): $196,635
76. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): $1,500,000
77. Eric Schmitt (R-MO): $50,000
78. Rick Scott (R-FL): $200,000
79. Tim Scott (R-SC): $596,000
80. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH): $400,000
81. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ): $556,000
82. Tina Smith (D-MN): $200,000
83. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI): $187,096
84. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): $800,000
85. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): $150,000
86. Jon Tester (D-MT): $1,000,000
87. John Thune (R-SD): $400,000
88. Thom Tillis (R-NC): $300,000
89. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL):$50,000
90. JD Vance (R-OH): $50,000
91. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): $300,000
92. Mark Warner (D-VA): $600,000
93. Raphael Warnock (D-GA): $50,000
94. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): $822,573
95. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): $300,000
96. Roger Wicker (R-MS): $300,000
97. Ron Wyden (D-OR): $1,500,000
98. Todd Young (R-IN): $300,000

Big Pharma exaggerates the costs of R&D of new medicines to justify their high pricing, and often categorise ‘opportunity costs’ and non-research activities, such as the cost of buying another company, as R&D costs. While Big Pharma often says it costs US$2-3 billion to develop a new drug, other credible estimates are at least 10 times lower – in the $100-200 million range.

President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. know corporations free-ride off public, taxpayer-funded research at government and university laboratories, from which most new drugs and health technologies originate. They get tax credits and other financial incentives to ‘de-risk’ their research investments and privatize and patent the resulting products. Then, they charge high prices to taxpayers and governments.

● About two-thirds of the new drugs that arrive on the market are no better than what we already have. Pharma corporations put more effort into developing so-called ‘me-too drugs’ than finding true therapeutic breakthroughs.

● A notorious pharma tactic is patent ‘evergreening’, where corporations file for additional patents on small changes to existing drugs, thereby lengthening their monopoly and blocking affordable generic products.

● Big Pharma says they need huge profits so they can pay for R&D and innovation. But in reality, they spend more on share buybacks to boost their own stock prices, and on sales and marketing, than on R&D.

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