The pharmaceutical industry is now the most loathed sector in America, according to a new poll.
A Gallup Poll conducted in August found that 58% of Americans held negative views of the pharmaceutical industry while only 27% held positive views of it. It’s the lowest the industry has ever been ranked in the poll, which began in 2001.
Gallup noted that high drug prices, the opioid epidemic, and Big Pharma’s big lobbying efforts are all factors that likely played into respondents’ frustration with the industry.
A September 4, 2019 ArsTechnica article noted that CEOs from companies such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer are using their vast personal wealth to fund political campaigns of select U.S. senators.
“It’s clear that some number of these CEOs are trying to make sure that Republican candidates who might act on this issue [of drug pricing] choose not to take it up,” said Robert Blendon, Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “What you have here is an effort to make sure a popular issue with voters isn’t acted on.”
Read the ArsTechnica article: Big Pharma’s image sinks to new low amid opioid crisis, high drug prices