How powerful exactly are the big pharmaceutical companies in this country? Well, that’s a big question. There are a lot of ways to measure it, but here are a few ways you can measure it. In this country, Big Pharma can advertise its drugs directly to consumers and that’s a little strange if you think about it, since consumers don’t prescribe drugs, doctors do. So, why are the drugs being advertised directly to consumers?
That’s allowed in only one other country on the planet, but it’s allowed here. So, it may not surprise you that in this country, drug companies spend more on lobbying the Congress than any other industry, a lot more than any other industry and they don’t do it by accident. They do it because it pays off. In a deal like this, a pretty remarkable deal, the drug companies have worked out with politicians. So, the government uses your tax dollars to buy billions worth of their products and then in some cases forces you to use those products.
