Perhaps it was a secret hiding in plain sight. But Peter Rost at BrandweekNRX got our attention this morning by saying that Jeff Kindler at Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) not only contributes to Democrats but is a major supporter of Hillary Clinton for president. He bases this on a clear pattern of pro-Hillary campaign donations, and he poses this question:
Question is what this means as far as Hillary goes - if the big drug companies start to support her, she sure has come a long way since she tried to implement healthcare reform.
We also might wonder how this might play with other C-level pharma executives, who by and large are Republicans and support Republicans, according to our experiences and a raft of research. Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s CEO Dick Clark is a registered Republican in Montgomery County. So is Wyeth's R&D chief Bob Ruffolo. The list could go on. And of course the industry's lobbying generally has been skewed toward the GOP, and the GOP has been skewed to support the industry. Then again, the political landscape for Big Pharma began changing last year with the Democratic takeover of the House. Stay tuned.
