"We pay more for prescription drugs than any other advanced nation in the world. And there's no good reason for it," Biden said from the White House. "For years, Big Pharma has stood in the way. Not this year.
"This year, the American people won, and Big Pharma lost."
"Imagine being the parent of a kid suffering from Type 1 diabetes. Let's say you're paying $500, $600, $700 a month. You don't have it," he continued. "How in God's name do you look at that child?"
"Under Donald Trump, my Republican friends had no problem enacting a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations " not a penny which was paid for and massively increased the federal debt," Biden said, adding that the debt ceiling was raised by $2 trillion when Trump was in office.
"In 2020, 55 of the biggest corporations in America made $40 billion in profit. I'm happy for the profit," he continued. "But they didn't pay a single penny in federal income tax."
...
U.S. President Joe Biden raised $61.8 million for his inauguration events, receiving large contributions from corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals, according to a financial disclosure.
...
The pharmaceutical industry has spent nearly $263 million on lobbying so far this year, employing three lobbyists for every member of Congress, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. Millions of those dollars are in the form of campaign donations.
...
November 1, 2021
U.S. pharmaceutical companies are expected to collect more revenue from COVID-19 vaccines in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half of the year, and that money should continue to grow.
In the first half of the year, Pfizer Inc. PFE and Moderna Inc. MRNA reported collective sales of $17.2 billion for their vaccines, but both are expected to report higher third-quarter totals in the coming week, a collective $18 billion. Pfizer is scheduled to report earnings Tuesday morning, while Moderna follows on Thursday morning, after Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported last week more than $500 million in third-quarter sales, nearly double the $264 million it collected in the first half.
Pfizer collected revenue of $11.3 billion in the first half of the year from its COVID-19 vaccine, now known as Comirnaty, and analysts project third-quarter sales of $11.86 billion. Those numbers could be a bit high, however, as some sales could get pushed into the fourth quarter, when booster shots and the newly authorized vaccine for younger children begin landing in arms.
