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Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of documents that federal investigators believed he had failed to turn over earlier in the year, when he returned boxes of material he had improperly taken with him upon moving out of the White House, three people familiar with the matter said.
Everyone should be able to get the medications they need at a price they can afford. But drug prices are still out of control, driven by high launch prices and price hikes that Big Pharma alone control. And a new analysis from AHIP shows that in most cases, more of the dollars spent by drug manufacturers go toward selling and marketing costs than toward research and development (R&D) for new treatments, cures, or expanded indications and uses of existing drugs.
The AHIP analysis examined the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies by revenue in 2020. Using pharmaceutical companies' own annual reports and other financial filings, AHIP compared spending on research and development with a combination of selling, general, and administrative costs. In the analysis, selling and marketing costs constituted the bulk of spending for selling, general, and administrative costs.
Of the 10 drug manufacturers examined, 7 of them spent more on selling and marketing expenses than they did on research and development. For this group of 10 companies alone, selling and marketing expenses exceeded R&D spending by $36 billion, or 37%. Moreover, this use of dollars occurred during a year dedicated to the development of new treatments and vaccines to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.
Of particular note:
Drug manufacturers offer many important medicines that people need and deserve, but patients and our health care system should not be priced gouged for them. Big Pharma's practices clearly show that their growth strategy is based on selling a greater volume of drugs to patients – not on creating groundbreaking new therapies and delivering more value to patients. We do not have to choose between innovation and the affordability of prescription drugs. With thoughtful solutions that encourage private-market competition and end pharma's gaming of the system, we can have both.
The fund affiliated with former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election paid $60,000 to a fashion designer known for styling Melania Trump's wardrobe when the couple was in the White House.
The Save America political action committee distributed the money to Hervé Pierre Braillard in four paymentsstarting April 7 and going through June 24, according to records filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
