Donate or Else, drug company told staff [View All]

[donsu]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/05/1062549020461.html

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The four, who asked not to be named, said they were told to donate the maximum - $US1000 ($1500) in their own name and $US1000 in their spouse's - and if they failed to do so, their names would be forwarded to the company's then chief executive, Charles Heimbold.

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Elsewhere in the drug industry, the election message was much the same. Some companies circulated a videotape of Vice President Al Gore railing against the high price of prescription drugs, resulting in a flood of contributions for Bush and other Republicans.

Those donations may soon pay off for the pharmaceutical business. Four years ago, a Democrat was in the White House and the industry was fighting a prescription drug proposal that it said would have led to price controls. When Mr Bush won the election, the drug makers celebrated.

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The industry had a single goal: to defeat any legislation that would let Medicare negotiate big discounts on the price of drugs for its 40 million beneficiaries.
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