The other Drug Lords

Abstract

To gain an understanding of how hard it will be to control skyrocketing health care costs in the United States, consider one small part of the health care system: the pharmaceutical industry. Every time Congress threatens to crack down on drug costs or reduce government support for the industry, the pharmaceutical firms crank out PAC contributions and deploy their lobbyists. The upshot: drug companies get to charge what they want while holding onto millions of dollars' worth of government giveaways, including tax breaks and generous patent protection.