Drug prices are on the ballot once again in 2020.
It’s already evident from President Trump’s frenzied reelection push and in state legislative races across the country: Health care costs and the price of prescription medicines in particular continue to drive voters to the polls.
Nearly 8 in 10 Americans want Congress to act to lower drug prices, according to polling. Other surveys show that Americans view the drug industry more unfavorably than any other business sector.
And across the country, prominent lawmakers and candidates continue to make drug costs a central campaign theme — either highlighting their own work on the issue or challenging their prospective opponents to do more.
STAT breaks down three congressional races that will serve as bellwethers for voter sentiment on drug pricing, campaign contributions from the drug industry, campaign ads from patient- and pharma-aligned advocacy groups, and more.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R) defending his seat in North Carolina
Thom Tillis is a longtime industry ally. The drug maker lobbying group, PhRMA, held a Valentine’s Day fundraiser on his behalf in 2019, and Tillis has proven a favorite among industry executives who have showered lawmakers with contributions from their personal checkbooks. Tillis is also the co-author, along with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), of a bill to strengthen patent protections that’s seen as one of the most pro-pharma pieces of legislation before Congress.
The North Carolina Democratic Party has already slammed Tillis for accepting more campaign funding from the drug industry than any other GOP senator up for reelection this cycle.
Cal Cunningham, a U.S. Army reservist and former state senator, appears to be Tillis’ most likely Democratic challenger. In the early going, he’s attempted to distance himself from Tillis by pushing aside big-business interests.
“Thom Tillis has taken over $2.2 million from corporate PACs like Big Pharma and oil and gas companies,” Cunningham says on his campaign website, “and has repeatedly voted for their interests over the interests of North Carolinians.”
But Cunningham hasn’t shown quite the same aversion to pharmaceutical industry dollars that the Democratic presidential candidates have: He’s accepted a campaign check from one of the founders of Vertex (VRTX) Pharmaceuticals, the Boston biotech under fire for the price of its cystic fibrosis drugs.
Sen. John Cornyn (R) defending his seat in Texas
Like Tillis, Cornyn has historically been seen as an ally of the pharmaceutical industry. But at a February Senate hearing, Cornyn attempted to make clear he was taking the drug-cost issue as seriously as his potential Democratic challengers, aggressively questioning AbbVie (ABBV) CEO Richard Gonzalez and demanding answers regarding the company’s patent strategy for its blockbuster arthritis drug, Humira.
Cornyn has taken the opposite tack from Tillis in multiple ways: He’s also the author of a bill aimed at slowing some of the pharmaceutical industry’s most over-the-top patent mischief. But Cornyn was forced to soften that effort in the face of aggressive pharmaceutical industry lobbying.
Democrats, though, haven’t coalesced around a candidate in the early stages of their nominating contest, and obvious choices like former housing secretary Julián Castro or former Rep. Beto O’Rourke both passed on the chance to challenge Cornyn in favor of presidential bids.
Rep. Andy Kim (D) defending his seat in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District
Democrats took back the House majority in 2018 thanks largely to victories in swing districts like that of Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who represents the eastern suburbs of Philadelphia. Kim, in particular, won on health care, beating former Rep. Tom MacArthur, one of the key brokers of the compromise that allowed House Republicans to pass a repeal the Affordable Care Act before the effort failed in the Senate.
The victories, however, created a Democratic Catch-22: passing legislation like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Lower Drug Costs Now Act requires the support of newly elected Democrats from pharma hotbeds like California, Massachusetts, and, yes, New Jersey.
Already, a pharmaceutical industry-backed conservative group called the American Action Network has attacked Kim with an ad series titled “How much is your life worth?” The ads deride Pelosi’s bill as a “socialist plan to put government in control of drug prices” and accuse lawmakers, including Kim, of favoring a takeover of benefits that could hurt seniors who rely on prescription drugs.
The patient-focused interest group Patients for Affordable Drugs, which is backed by the pharma-focused billionaire couple John and Laura Arnold, has already responded with ads backing Kim’s stance. His reelection campaign, however, is certain to serve as a bellwether for Democrats whose constituents are often employed by drug companies.
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