Inside STAT: How AARP became the drug industry's biggest opponent in Washington

(ALEX HOGAN)

Planes waving a “CUT DRUG PRICES NOW” banner, TV ads proclaiming “price gouging” from drug companies, and senior citizens dressed as pill bottles outside a senator’s office — these are just some of the tactics in a new multimillion-dollar campaign from AARP to take on the pharmaceutical industry. The group’s new push is not being met kindly by PhRMA, the drug industry’s lobbying arm. Already, PhRMA has launched counter-ads that focus on the $600 million that AARP earns from selling Medicare Advantage plans. Although it’s still unclear which of the two groups will sway voters and lawmakers toward supporting any legislation, they seem evenly matched. “PhRMA is an 800-pound gorilla. And I think they’re meeting another 800-pound gorilla in AARP,” Max Richtman, head of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, tells STAT’s Nicholas Florko. Read more here.