Why is this drug pricing PAC spending millions on long-shot races? - STAT

Why is this drug pricing PAC spending millions on long-shot races? - STAT

Everything else you need to know

Candidates across the U.S. have been running on platforms specific to drug costs, health insurance, and the opioid crisis for months. Some highlights:

• One political group just announced it’s spent $10 million on the midterms so far. But is Patients for Affordable Drugs using its money wisely?

• Republican candidates are abandoning their promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. More from the New York Times.   

• Bob Menendez is running against a pharma CEO. Health care should be an issue that’s easy for his campaign to talk about — so why did they make a fake news website?

• You can be sure PhRMA is watching this year’s midterm elections closely. It’s harder to explain why the group spent $500,000 on a rent-control initiative in California. There might be a vendetta at play.

• When Vice President Mike Pence went to Grand Rapids on Monday, the Michigan Democratic Party inflated a giant prescription bottleon a nearby hill to “remind people Mike Pence and other Republicans are in the pockets of big pharmaceutical companies.”