Big Pharma Spends $65.4 Million on Lobbying in Q1 of 2014

It looks like America is still going broke, but Big Pharma certainly isn’t. In the first quarter of 2014 alone, drug manufacturers and chemical companies have spent eye-popping figures to make sure that Americans stay hooked on their kool-aid. According to the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics, these big spenders are truly invested in promoting their poison.

How do they do it? Try spending $5.15 million to influence key political figures, like Dow Chemical, who currently is trying to get its latest version of competitor Monsanto’s glyphosate-base herbicide to market – called Enlist Duo. It must have been pricey to come up with a toxin even more deadly than RoundUp in their lab. Now, Dow is looking to make that money back, on our backs.

OpenSecrets.org reported that the $5.15 million spent is “far and away the most the company has spent in a quarter over the past five years.” In previous years they spent no more than $3.83 million in a quarter. Nevertheless, Dow holds to their PR tactics stating the $5 million is spent on “pushing its agenda on issues involving energy, trade and agriculture.” Translation – a slow deterioration – for everyone.

The American Chemistry Council spent quite a pretty penny too. Last year they laid out a cool $1.9 million during the same period and this year they spent $3 million in the first three months of 2014 to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act to their liking, which regulates industrial chemicals.

The big winner, though? An incredible $65.4 million was spent on lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry during 2014’s first quarter. That’s more than a 24 percent increase over all the monies they spent in the last quarter of last year. Its an astronomical amount for any industry to spend on winning over politicians and special interest groups. So what do they have to spend all that money for? Right – to keep you jacked up on Pfizer, Merck & Co, and Bayer AG drugs. Its like giving candy to a baby, now, or is it?

-Q: What do you call a Senator that gets a promotion?

-A: A Lobbyist

Pfizer just reported lower earnings due to lower sales in their first quarter, and Merck stock has been rated a ‘weak statistical growth score,’ and late last year, Bayer AG lost a drug ruling in India. Could these too-big-to-fail companies actually be crumbling?