Pharma CEOs funding Republican senators

A small group of Republican senators are beneficiaries of some top pharma CEOs' donations, according to a STAT review of campaign finance reports. No major industry execs have contributed to any of the Democratic presidential candidates or President Trump’s reelection campaign, STAT’s Lev Facher writes.

But pharma’s top brass is funding GOP legislators tasked with OK'ing a bill that lowers drug costs — and could potentially cost drug companies $85 billion in revenue in the next decade.

“It’s clear that some number of these CEOs are trying to make sure that Republican candidates who might act on this issue choose not to take it up,” one policy wonk told STAT. “What you have here is an effort to make sure a popular issue with voters isn’t acted on.”