Who Killed Big Pharma?

Prior to the election, The Wall Street Journal’s editors criticized pharmaceutical manufacturers for spending money to prop up Democratic congresscritters, who will no doubt reward Big Pharma by slapping price controls on prescription drugs. The Journal likened this to Big Pharma selling the rope with which they will be hanged.


Yesterday, the Journal published my letter to the editor:

Big Pharma sold the rope with which it will be hanged back in 2003 (“Pharma Sells the Rope,” Review & Outlook, Oct. 29) when it agreed to make the federal government — specifically, the new Medicare Part D program — its largest customer. It is because of that Republican initiative that the specter of price controls now hangs loosely around Big Pharma’s neck.


The $13.2 million bribe that Big Pharma threw at the Democrats in this election cycle is merely an attempt to buy off the hangman.