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Comment by mark_l_watson | Hacker News Reader

I think I read that Senator Wyden is the second largest taker of money from Big Pharma. Because of this, I am going to take a careful and critical look at his legislation.

To be fair, many politicians do both really good and really bad things. The world is not black and white.

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Total FUD. Wyden is no friend of big pharma. Probably one of the only couple of politicians we have left actually working for the people.

https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-expands-...

Do more research. He is a mixed bag, trying to lower prescription drug prices, but he is also no enemy of Big Pharma. I asked OpenAI about him in research mode, and if it was largely correct.

So not total FUD. I am quoting from ChatGPT:

Between 2019 and 2024, Senator Ron Wyden received $351,513 in campaign contributions from the Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industry. This total includes $169,063 from individual donors and $182,450 from political action committees (PACs).

It’s important to note that while Senator Wyden has received contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, he has also been a critic of high drug prices. For instance, during a 2019 Senate Finance Committee hearing, he emphasized the need for concrete actions to make medications more affordable.

I don't think that absolute dollar value a useful measure.

From https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/ron-wyden/su...

Pharmaceuticals/Health Products is the 9th contributor (or about 3% of his campaign fundraising between 2019-2024). Is that big? I have no idea.

if an individual pharma employee makes a donation as an individual, many of the datasets will classify it as “money from the pharmaceutical industry”. worth considering.

And those individuals are typically well educated and well remunerated people, who as a cohort tend to lean Democrat.

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