The pharmaceutical industry leverages Washington’s culture of corruption to increase profits
while everyday Americans suffer from high drug prices.
It’s no secret that the Trump administration has fostered a culture of corruption in which special interests and big donors advance their interests at the expense of everyday people. Perhaps no policy area exemplifies this corruption more than the issue of drug pricing.
President Trump has long promised to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices, but he has avoided taking serious action to drive down prices while at the same time filling top spots in his administration with industry insiders. This administration’s culture of corruption, which continues a decadeslong practice of political pandering to the pharmaceutical industry, carries a real cost; Americans spent $535 billion1 on prescription drugs in 2018, an increase of 50 percent since 2010. These price increases far surpass inflation, with Big Pharma increasing prices on its most-prescribed medications by anywhere from 40 percent to 71 percent from 2011 to 2015.2
