The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has repeatedly found avenues to donate large amounts of money to both Republicans and Democrats.
In compliance with federal law, Pfizer did not donate the money itself but through its various affiliates, including PACs, employees, owners, and other connections.
Through these channels, Pfizer contributed $95,920 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, splitting its donations between $50,920 in direct contributions to candidates and $45,000 in other forms of political support, like PACs.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also received $92,192 in various forms, and Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign took in $77,378 from Pfizer-connected donations.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association received $75,000 in donations, while $72,588 went to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to Open Secrets, a website that tracks campaign donations.
However, these significant committees and campaigns are not the only recipients of Pfizer’s dollars.
Former President Donald Trump was the 10th largest recipient of money originating from Pfizer, with $21,821 in direct donations.
Campaign contributions are a standard tool for lobbyists. Lobbying is a form of advocacy that seeks to use all lawful means to influence the decision-making of legislators and other government officials directly. Frequently, this includes arranging meetings, hosting conferences, funding research and media, and donating to campaigns.
The largest non-defense-related political lobbying organization is the gargantuan pharmaceutical lobby, which includes Pfizer, Moderna, Purdue, and other drug producers.
According to Investopedia, the pharmaceutical lobby spent more than $5.8 billion between 1998 and 2023, though it is unclear how much of that figure was strictly campaign donations.
Investopedia’s figures end in 2023 and do not include contributions made by Pfizer’s network in the 2024 election cycle. Likewise, Open Secret’s figures do not include expenditures Pfizer could have hypothetically made in connection with other lobbying activities, such as hosting an influential event where a candidate may have been in attendance.
Pharmaceutical industry lobbying expenditures are up this year, Politico reports.
One lobbying group, PhRMA, reportedly spent $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $7.99 million in the same quarter last year. These figures indicated increases across all ten pharmaceutical industry lobbying groups.
Presumably, some of this increase includes campaign donations, although Politico did not itemize the expenditures.
The donations Harris received from Pfizer may not come as a shock, given that the Biden-Harris Administration mandated that American workers take either Pfizer or Moderna’s COVID injectable during the fall of 2021. However, some viewers may find the donations to Trump surprising.
Although the three COVID vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson) had been developed through Operation Warp Speed during Trump’s presidency, Pfizer and Moderna’s relationship with the 45th president soured by the time he left office.
Trump had previously implied, during an April 2021 interview with Sean Hannity, that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been “paused” by the FDA because Pfizer and Moderna’s network had donated to Biden, while Johnson & Johnson was the lone vaccine developer that supported the 45th president.
“I’ll give you a little breaking news. Pfizer is in with the FDA. And what the FDA did with Johnson & Johnson is so stupid,” Trump told Hannity.
Trump later added, “I think it’s very suspect is what they did with Johnson & Johnson, because the only people that are happy about that are Pfizer and Moderna. The only people that are happy about that because what they did is a terrible, terrible thing.”
This was a frequent line from the former president at that time.
“The FDA, especially with long-time bureaucrats within, has to be controlled. They should not be able to do such damage for possibly political reasons, or maybe because their friends at Pfizer have suggested it. They’ll do things like this to make themselves look important,” Trump said in a similar statement.
This latest round of pharmaceutical donations comes as Americans and various entities grapple with the fallout from the governmental COVID-19 response.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who received an Emmy for his pandemic-era television conferences before resigning under allegations of sexual misconduct, will soon appear before Congress over his handling of COVID cases in nursing homes.
Cuomo faced intense criticism near the end of his governorship over the alleged cover-up of COVID deaths at nursing homes after the governor ordered nursing homes to take COVID-19-infected elderly patients.
A lawsuit from Houston ENT Mary Talley Bowden against the FDA was settled this past spring when it appeared the agency would suffer a bruising ruling about its misleading efforts to thwart the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
The settlement was followed by a videotaped admission from a top FDA attorney that the agency’s actions were wrong.