University of Minnesota Medical School Mock Interview
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Question 41 of 45
Pharmaceutical companies largely influence the medical profession through lobbying. What do you believe is the impact?
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Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
During the MMI portion of your admissions interview at the University of Minnesota Medical School, be prepared to speak about lobbying and its impact on the medical field.
Lobbying is 'an attempt by individuals or private interest groups to influence the decisions of another group.' Pharmaceutical lobbying is when pharmaceutical drug companies work to have the medical industry, medical professionals, or politicians act in favor of the pharmaceutical industry and its products. According to CNN Health, one well-known pharma lobbying group spent around 27.5 million on lobbying activities in one year alone.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"I have learned that lobbying impacts many industries and sectors, including medicine, education, law, and politics. Lobbying can hurt physicians and patients in the medical industry in a few ways. We see reports that the big pharma lobbying group, PhRMA, has spent as much as 300 million to defend higher prescription drug costs. As we know, unaffordable medication is a significant issue for many ill people in our country. One example of this impact is the outrage over Mylan's EpiPen prices in 2016. When Mylan purchased the rights to EpiPen in 2007, they gradually raised the list price from about 50 per auto-injector to over 600 for a two-pack. The move boosted EpiPen's profits to 1.1 billion a year. Much of this was due to pharma lobbying efforts directed at drug pricing and limiting generic competitors. After Trump's speech in 2018 regarding the pending fall of pharmaceutical influence on drug prices, we have seen an uptick of big pharma pouring money into lobbying campaigns regarding laws surrounding prescription drug prices. Today, despite this surge in lobbying, we continue to see improvements in drug prices, and I look forward to tracking this topic of money, drugs, and government as my medical career further unfolds."
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