Democrats have long served as the traditional enemy of Big Pharma, but in this presidential campaign, the left is taking the lion's share of drugmaker money.
Democratic senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the top recipients of donations from the pharmaceutical industry, according to The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research group in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, donations to Sen. John McCain, who was recently endorsed by President Bush as the official Republican candidate, pale in comparison.
Obama maintains a slight edge over his Democratic rival, with $181,000 in Big Pharma donations through Jan. 31, compared with Clinton's $174,000, according to the center. McCain is far behind with $44,000.
This is in spite of the fact that all three candidates have consistently bashed the pharma industry and vowed to lower drug prices, which would take a bite out of corporate profits.
In this election, donations from large pharmaceutical companies have shifted from the Republican candidates in past elections to the two remaining Democratic candidates remaining in this year's election. One reason for this shift is that although Republicans still control the White House the Democrats have taken over the Senate and the pharmaceutical companies could be trying to secure access to the ruling party by funding their traditional enemies. Secondly, the distinctions have blurred between the two parties' relationship with big business. Democrats have traditionally been seen as enemies to the pharmaceutical industry, while Republicans are supposed to be their allies. With Mccain acting as the conservative candidate the situation is no longer clear cut. The policies of all three remaining candidates uniformly unfriendly to Big Pharma.
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