The Republican party strengthened its hold on the U.S. House of Representatives and took control of the U.S. Senate during Tuesday night's midterm elections. While some of the races have yet to be declared, the GOP will control at least 52 of the 100 Senate seats and 243 out of 435 Congressional seats (and those numbers could go up).
This was, as every single American election cycle has been since 1998, one of the most expensive midterm campaigns in U.S. history. Money flowed at a record pace from out-of-state contributors and the increasingly popular dark money groups known as Super PACs into each and every competitive Senate and House race.
So who got the green in 2014? According to the watchdog group Open Secrets, pharma hedged its bets but leaned towards conservative candidates in this cycle, with 57% of the cumulative $19,237,914 that the industry spent going to Republicans and the remaining 43% (or $8,267,805) going to Democrats. Unsurprisingly, the pharmaceutical sector tends to put its money where the winners are, and 18 out of the 20 top pharmaceutical money recipients won on Tuesday night (the only losses were Democratic North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, who lost her re-election bid by about 1%, and former GOP House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, who lost his primary bid for the Republican nomination in a stunning upset this past June).
The biggest contributors were as follows: Pfizer ($1,369,790), Amgen ($1,277,464), McKesson ($933,000), Merck ($926,095), and Abbott ($773,085), with Merck being the most even-handed in its giving to Democrats and Republicans and Allergan ranking at the bottom of the overall contributors list with $333,450 given overwhelmingly to the GOP. Other big-name pharmas that made the top 20 list include AstraZeneca ($705,083), Eli Lilly ($675,150), AbbVie ($623,750), J&J ($601,163), GSK ($586,754), Novartis ($483,890), and Genentech ($401,575).
As for the top lobbying clients, PhRMA blew every other organization out of the water with $12,650,000, followed by Pfizer ($6,910,000), Amgen ($6,590,000), the Biotechnology Industry Organization ($6,190,000), and Eli Lilly ($5,886,000).
Here's where all that cold, hard pharma cash went (all information taken from Open Secrets), as well as any committee assignments these candidates have that are relevant to the biopharma industry:
1. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $310,200
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee (Chairman)
2. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $303,023
Relevant committee assignments: Senate Minority Leader (expected to become Senate Majority Leader); Senate Appropriations Committee
3. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $273,050
Relevant committee assignments: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
4. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $247,000
Relevant committee assignments: Speaker of the House of Representatives
5. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $238,600
Relevant committee assignments: House Majority Leader; House Financial Services Committee
6. Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $234,199
Relevant committee assignments: House Ways and Means Committee
7. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $234,050
Relevant committee assignments: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
8. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $218,850
Relevant committee assignments: Senate Appropriations Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (Ranking member, expected to become Committee Chairman)
9. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $213,727
Relevant committee assignments: House Budget Committee (Chairman)
10. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $203,109
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee
11. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $194,400
Relevant committee assignments: House Ways and Means Committee
12. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $187,500
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee
13. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $175,750
Relevant committee assignments: House Budget Committee; House Energy and Commerce Committee
14. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $175,275
Relevant committee assignments: House Ways and Means Committee
15. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $173,900
Relevant committee assignments: Senate Finance Committee
16. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $167,572
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee
17. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $167,082
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee
18. Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-IL)
Total 2014 cycle contributions: $160,600
Relevant committee assignments: House Energy and Commerce Committee
As you can see, Senate and House leadership, as well as members of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee (which has jurisdiction over the FDA and many healthcare sectors) and its counterpart in the Senate, were some of the biggest pharma money recipients. Biopharma firms also doled out big bucks to candidates from states relevant to the industry, including Michigan, California, Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Tennessee.
Sen. Hagan and Rep. Cantor, the only two pharma-backed losers in this cycle out of the top 20 industry money recipients, raked in $201,188 and $156,098 in wasted funds, respectively. You can explore a lot more data, including the history of pharma contributions, over at Open Secrets.