Editorial Note: In this interview by Rising on The Hill (Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti), Alex Lawson (Director of “Social Security Works”) lambasts the cozy situation between Big Pharma and its revolving door with Congress that continues a thirty year policy of putting profits before the health needs  of the American people. Lawson states that the medical research community  had been working on cures for Coronaviruses for more than fifteen years since they expected a possible pandemic like we are experiencing now due to past outbreaks such as  SARS  in 2002/2003 etc. (https://journals.lww.com/pidj/Fulltext/2005/11001/History_and_Recent_Advances_in_Coronavirus.12.aspx) But their research was put on the shelf  since it wasn’t something Big Pharma could make a huge profit on–at least not until now that we are in the middle of a pandemic! Lawson states that almost all of the medical research for drugs is paid for by our tax dollars. Then that research is given to private pharmaceuticals who in turn make only minor changes in the formulas. In fact Lawson states the pharmaceuticals spend far more on packaging and advertising than they do on research. They then jack up the prices to an untenable amount even on things like insulin (discovered over 100 years ago). In addition, Medicare, The Veterans Administration etc. are not allowed to try to negotiate lower prices, even though the prices for drugs are lower everywhere else than in the USA. 

Categories: Uncategorized