PhRMA Deflects From Rising Drug Spending
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry's primary lobbying shop, is actively promoting messaging that STAT characterizes as an attempt to get the public and press to ignore a clear-cut rise in prescription drug spending
- Lobbying groups routinely distribute news releases and talking points to journalists as a deliberate tactic to influence reporting, according to STAT's framing in its Health Care Inc. newsletter
- STAT identified PhRMA's deflection effort as the lead item in its Health Care Inc. weekly newsletter, signaling the outlet's editorial judgment that the lobbying push itself is newsworthy
- Prescription drug spending has risen clearly enough, per STAT's characterization, that PhRMA is investing in a messaging campaign rather than engaging the spending data on its merits
Why it matters: PhRMA's push to redirect attention from a clear-cut rise in prescription drug spending — delivered through talking points aimed at journalists — puts the lobby's preferred framing directly into the coverage chain for one of the largest cost lines in U.S. health care. Patients, employers, and lawmakers weighing drug pricing policy get a lobby-shaped filter on the underlying spending data before it reaches the public.
