It’s 2018 all over again: Drug prices are a defining issue in Senate races
Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, the advocacy group backed by the billionaire activists John and Laura Arnold, made its first partisan ad buy in 2020 last week: A seven-figure effort to unseat Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is viewed as one of the drug industry’s biggest allies on Capitol Hill.
It’s one of several races around the country where drug pricing is a key attack point, especially for vulnerable Republican incumbents. In Montana, Democrats are working to cast Sen. Steve Daines (R) as soft on drug companies, and sometimes bending the facts. In Maine, Democrat Sara Gideon has accused incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R) of a “quid pro quo” — attacking her for accepting campaign contributions from the drug industry while voting, years ago, against bills to ban “pay-for-delay” deals between brand and generic drug manufacturers.
It’s all happening against the strange landscape of President Trump’s nakedly political drug pricing efforts in the final countdown before Election Day. And while his administration’s policies have yet to take effect, drug pricing is still the lone health care issue on which Trump holds an edge over Biden, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll — perhaps explaining Democrats’ eagerness to highlight the issue themselves.
It’s one of several races around the country where drug pricing is a key attack point, especially for vulnerable Republican incumbents. In Montana, Democrats are working to cast Sen. Steve Daines (R) as soft on drug companies, and sometimes bending the facts. In Maine, Democrat Sara Gideon has accused incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R) of a “quid pro quo” — attacking her for accepting campaign contributions from the drug industry while voting, years ago, against bills to ban “pay-for-delay” deals between brand and generic drug manufacturers.
It’s all happening against the strange landscape of President Trump’s nakedly political drug pricing efforts in the final countdown before Election Day. And while his administration’s policies have yet to take effect, drug pricing is still the lone health care issue on which Trump holds an edge over Biden, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll — perhaps explaining Democrats’ eagerness to highlight the issue themselves.
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