Big Pharma expects to win. And it almost always does. To that end, the industry spent $92 million lobbying officials in Washington just in the first three months of 2021—more than double the next-most aggressive industry. So it was shocking last week to see U.S. President Joe Biden stiff-arm the big drug companies and stand with countries like India and South Africa in insisting companies hand over intellectual property for the coronavirus vaccines so urgently needed around the world. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s trade association, slammed the decision as “an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic.”
