Inside STAT: Pharma is showering Congress with cash, even amid coronavirus

(ALEX HOGAN/STAT)

A new STAT analysis of 23 major drug manufacturers and two major pharmaceutical trade groups shows how the industry’s political giving is continuing unchecked, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a national debate on prescription drug pricing. Major companies are racing to find a Covid-19 vaccine, but their political action committees have cut roughly 4,500 checks this election cycle alone, totaling roughly $11 million for 356 individual Congress members. “It’s hard to wrap your mind around the breadth of campaign donations from corporate PACs,” STAT’s Lev Facher, who conducted the analysis, tells me. And the data visualizations built by STAT contributor Kaitlyn Bartley “allow you to click on a specific lawmaker and instantly get a graphic representation of every check from drug industry groups they’ve cashed in the leadup to the 2020 election.” Read the story here.