senator.Scott Teama rising star in the Republican Party popular In his home state of South Carolina, he is getting a lot of money from the pharmaceutical industry before facing voters this fall.
Scott was the top recipient of Congressional Pharma campaign cash in the second half of 2021, receiving $99,000, KHN’s Pharma Cash to Congress database The program has become the new favorite of the industry. Although Scott has been a perennial recipient since he arrived in Congress in 2011, the latest amount is nearly double his previous top earnings.
Why Tim Scott? The junior senator from South Carolina is widely seen as destined to achieve more in his political career. This is a life-or-death moment for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, as protecting allies is critical.
Congress is under intense pressure to rein in high drug prices in the United States, which are often several times higher than in other developed countries.About a quarter of adults reported having difficulty affording their prescription drugs KFF polling. Further, 83% of Americans support The idea of Medicare negotiating with drug companies to lower prices for its beneficiaries and private insurance beneficiaries — 95% Democrats, 82% independents and 71% Republicans.
The industry needs people like Scott, who has introduced several health-related bills in recent years and insists Pharmaceutical Friendly Jobs, in its corner. He opposed a proposal to let Medicare negotiate prices in legislation backed by a majority of Democrats in Congress. In 2019, when the Senate Finance Committee was considering a drug pricing bill created by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Scott vote against A measure that would have amended legislation to allow Medicare drug prices to be negotiated. (Scott himself was absent, but voted against it by proxy.)
In September, as the top Republican Senate Select Committee on Aginghe posted a Report think Human Resources 3A sweeping move by House Democrats to drive down prices would lead to “innovation busts” and “corporate bankruptcy,” echoing the drug companies’ arguments.
“Democrats have suggested that the federal government should be responsible for setting the price of treatments, not a competitive free market maintained by companies that drive innovation,” the report said. The bill would allow the federal government to negotiate the price of certain expensive drugs and penalize them Non-cooperative pharmaceutical companies, among other terms.
Scott was also Senate Finance Committee Since 2015, this assignment has given him significant influence on legislation affecting the industry and a strong reputation in fundraising. A total of 27 pharmaceutical and biotech companies or their powerful lobbying groups in Washington contributed to his campaign account late last year. Amgen, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Genentech are his major donors, giving between $5,000 and $10,500 each.
He is also a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which will consider an issue important to drug companies this year: reauthorizing user fees the industry pays the FDA to help expedite the drug review and approval process. The law must be reauthorized by Congress every five years.
“I didn’t know until you told me,” Scott said when he was stopped by a KHN reporter at the Capitol, asking what his message was as a congressman who has received the most money from a pharma PAC in the past two years 2021 quarters of the year.
Stephen BillettThe George Washington University political action committee expert and associate professor at the Graduate School of Political Management noted that there were other factors that contributed to his fundraising efforts beyond his stance on pharmaceutical issues. Many of Scott’s positions are in line with his Republican colleagues in Congress, who have shied away from greater government intervention in containing costs. Rather, the contributions may reflect the industry’s bet that Scott has a promising political future.
He was a prolific fundraiser.Federal Election Commission records show Scott has raised $38 million — the most of any Republican senator running for re-election in 2022, and the second-most of any senator of either party — and has $21.5 million in his campaign account by the end of 2021, which is the second most in 2022. Raised speculation about a future presidential race. “America, a story of redemption”, Scott’s memoir is scheduled to be released in August through Christian publisher Thomas Nelson.
Pharma PACs will sit down at the start of the campaign cycle, take a close look at upcoming races and what their budgets might be, and then figure out who they want to help, Billet said.
“So they’re going to say, Tim Scott came on, he’s a rising star, he’s a pretty good guy,” Billett said. “It’s a good idea to get out there and put some money in his pocket.”
Pharmaceutical companies have a long tradition of giving strategic gifts to members to foster goodwill, the benefits of which often appear years later.
A KHN analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows that other Republican senators running for re-election received little money from drug companies during the same period. E.g, Senator Michael Crapo (R-Idaho), the most senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, received $68,300.member of the financial expert group Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) received $48,000. All three seats are safe for Republicans in November.
Scott has received money from drugmakers every year since entering Congress as a House member in 2011, receiving $596,000 by the end of last year, according to a KHN analysis of FEC data. Scott joined the Senate in 2013 after the then-governor. Nikki Haley chose him to replace Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who resigned from Congress to run the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. But it was a banner year for him; previously, the most he had received was $54,000 in the second half of 2019.
The following year, Scott co-founded Congress Personalized Medicine Caucus with a number of other lawmakers, including pharma darlings hapiness.Kirsten Cinema (D-Arizona). Personalized medicine — also known as precision medicine — promises to use genetics and other characteristics to develop individualized treatments for patients, often at a very high price.
“We will take steps to nurture scientific advances that may reverse the genetic and molecular causes of rare and common diseases, bring new hope to American patients, and deliver lasting benefits to our health care system,” Scott’s prepared statement Read at the time.
Scott’s press secretary, Caroline Anderegg, shared that the senator long-term interest In sickle cell disease, the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, it disproportionately strikes blacks.This disease affects about 100,000 Americansis one that could benefit from the development of gene-based therapies, a form of precision medicine, she said.
Formation of a core group be cheered Launched by the Personalized Medicine Alliance, an industry-friendly organization whose members include drugmakers who donated to Scott — AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck, to name a few example.the organization Estimating Personalized Medicine It accounts for more than a quarter of new treatments approved by the FDA since 2015, underscoring the pharmaceutical industry’s extensive work in this area.
Since 2019, Scott has introduced 17 health-related bills or resolutions, covering everything from food allergens and sickle cell disease to health disparities between racial and ethnic minorities.Last year, he sponsored a bill This will create tax incentives for drug and medical device companies to manufacture more products in the U.S. The legislative framework is looser agree with the idea from Accessible Medicines Associationlobbying for generic drug companies.
Overall, lawmakers received $3.5 million in campaign coffers from drug companies and their trade associations from June to December, according to a KHN analysis of industry donations.
“There’s a cycle in donations, so the 2021 offseason will probably be less than 2022 because it’s an election year,” said Paul Jorgensen, an associate professor of campaign finance at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. “But because of all the initiatives being pushed by the House and the ‘Build Back Better’ program, there’s been a lot of investment in this cycle of lobbying, so in some ways your numbers are just a reflection of what people expected.”
Other major recipients of pharmaceutical industry funding in the second half of 2021 include Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.), who was second only to Scott in donations, with $97,300.McMorris Rodgers is top Republican House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has big ramifications on the pharmaceutical issue, could be the chairman of a powerful group if Republicans retake the House majority in November as expected. Throughout 2021, she has received the most money from any lawmaker’s department.
Pharma PACs know who can lead the committee, Billet said: “They know 100 percent who the next person is, which makes McMorris Rodgers an obvious easy target.”
Sinema earned the third-highest income — $74,800, despite not being re-elected until 2024. That’s a huge gain compared to the first half of 2021, when she received $8,000. KHN report 2020 on Sinema’s connection to the pharmaceutical industry.
Data analyst Elizabeth Lucas contributed to this report.
Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service affiliated with the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
