, Columnist
Pharma’s 2018 Lobbying Record is Made to Be Broken
After an expensive year for the industry, it faces even greater threats from the Trump administration and Congress.
Record spending? You haven’t seen anything yet.
Photographer: Alex Edelman/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s principal lobbying group spent a record $27.5 million in 2018 as it contested a bruising series of drug-cost fights. That beat a previous high set in 2009 during the thick of the debate over the Affordable Care Act, and the biotech lobby hit a new spending mark as well.
But you haven’t seen anything yet. Those records are likely to be shattered in 2019, which is shaping up to be an even more consequential year for drug pricing.