Prescription drug prices have increased and, not surprisingly, so has the amount of money the pharmaceutical industry spends making sure lawmakers vote down legislations that may negatively affect the industry’s profits. The pharmaceutical industry spent $155 million dollars lobbying the federal government from 2005 to June 2006 – a record for the industry. Drug makers benefited tremendously from the investment: the pharmaceutical industry has been able to defeat every major bill that threatened its bottom line.

Drug companies also put money directly into the pockets of lawmakers, contributing more than $19 million to candidates in the 2006 congressional elections. Most of the contributions went to Republican candidates. The industry’s reach doesn’t end there: fees paid by drug makers make up more than half the budget of the Food and Drug Administration centers that assess new drugs. Drug makers also utilize the persuasive powers of more than one thousand lobbyists to influence lawmaker’s decision making.

The pharmaceutical industry’s big spending hurts the average American. The industry lobbied to stop legislation that would have allowed drugs to be imported from other countries and sold in the United States, reducing drug costs for everyone. Some experts estimate that "open pharmaceutical markets" could save Americans at least $38 billion each year. At least half a dozen measures supporting such markets were introduced in the House and the Senate during the last Congress, but all of them were stalled. A 2005 bill that would have allowed the country’s Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prices for Medicare prescription drugs was killed before it could be presented to the full Congress.

Experts predict that the pharmaceutical industry will spend even more money on lobbying in the coming year. With the new Democratic Congress, it is expected that industry-friendly laws will be met with opposition; drug makers will have to put up more cash to influence this, supposedly, tougher crowd of law makers. It will be interesting to see how the Democrats in power hold up under this pressure. Will they keep the needs of the average American in mind, or will they bow to the pressure of private industry?

Visit the Web site www.citizenjoe.org. There you can learn about any bills – drug-related and otherwise – lawmakers are considering. The site explains the laws in easy to understand language and lists their current status. Once you’ve educated yourself, write your legislators – Citizen Joe links you to a Web site that will give you the contact information you’ll need – and tell them what you think. Putting pressure on lawmakers, in the form of letters, phone calls, protests outside their offices, and keeping it on, can increase the likelihood that the country’s citizens will come out on top, in every way. It won’t be easy, but we can, with a little effort, defeat the corporate lobby.

Editor’s note: Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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