Bernie Sanders on pharmaceutical-industry: what the evidence says · JRE #1330
SUBJECT: PHARMACEUTICAL-INDUSTRY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Do you know how much the drug companies alone spent to defeat that effort? They spent $131 million on one ballot item in one state.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Sanders was referring to California's 2016 Proposition 61, a ballot measure that would have limited state drug purchases to prices paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Contemporaneous PolitiFact reporting on campaign finance disclosures shows the "No on Proposition 61" opposition committee, funded largely by pharmaceutical manufacturers, had raised nearly $87 million by early October 2016 and nearly $110 million by November 4, 2016, shortly before the measure was defeated 54%-46% on November 8. Sanders' figure of $131 million exceeds the reported total by roughly $20 million and is not supported by the campaign-finance figures reported at the time. The best available contemporaneous reporting indicates opposition spending closer to $109-110 million rather than $131 million.