"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."
