PANORAMA

Berlin  -  In the US hustings, the pharmacy lobby has adjusted their party donations to the new situation and has provided proportionately more money to the Democrats than in the years before. While chain operators and pharmaceutical manufacturers put their focus on the election campaign of the Democrats this time, the wholesalers abided by the Republicans.

According to figures of the research institute “Center for Responsive Politics”, 124 million US dollars of donations from the health sector were raised for the candidates and parties. With almost 2 million dollars, the American Dentists' Association contributed most, followed by the American Hospital Association, Pfizer and the American Medical Association. However, in most cases the money did not come from the organisations themselves but rather fro individuals who work in the industry.

The National Community Pharmacists Association donated 716,000 dollars, the National Association of Chain Drugstores came up with 230,000 dollars. However, the big chain operators got involved even more as single companies: CVS/Caremark gave 450,000 dollars, Walgreen donated 284,000 dollars and Rite Aid contributed 180,000 dollars. The supermarket chain Wal-Mart even spent more than 1.4 million dollars – 59 per cent of which went to the Republicans.

In contrast, the other chain operators as well as the pharmacists relied on the Democrats with 70 per cent. CVS and the chains' association prorated their contribution almost equally. Altogether, 52 per cent of the donations within the health sector went to the Democrats. But this was not always like that: During the last presidential elections (2000) as well as during the allocation of the representative chamber and the senate (2002, 2006), the Democrates only got about one third of the budget.

Even the pharmaceutical corporations gave 49 per cent of their funds for the election campaign of Barack Obama, this time. In 2000, Al Gore received 31 per cent; in 2004, John Kerry got 34 per cent of the financial means. Only the wholesalers donated about two thirds to the Republicans, this year as well. After all, in 2004 and 2006, this had been about three quarters.

The wind turned: By now, the Democrats have found their way into both houses of the congress and now also the White House. Every lobbyist should know who is going to approve the future health reforms and who it is to get along with well. After all, between 2000 and 2006, the shares of public expenditures for pharmaceuticals have grown from 23 to 34 per cent.

According to an analysis of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, Obama had spent 113 million dollars this year, which is two thirds of his budget, for 117 TV spots which mainly deal with the health sector. McCain only produced ten spots on this topic spending 13 per cent of his budget.

But also John McCain stood for legal plans hostile to the pharmaceutical branch within the current election campaign: Just like Obama, McCain called for more negotiating power for the state towards pharmaceutical manufacturers, lower prices, import possibilities and the faster introduction of generics. In a TV spot, the senator announced to have a go at the pharmaceutical industry, in a debate, he called the manufacturers “bad guys”.

Patrick Hollstein, Mon, November 10, 2008 05:36pm CET