While in most cases pharmaceutical companies do not make direct contributions, it is possible to assess their politics by looking at the donations made by their employees and lobby groups according to non-partisan research group the Center for Responsive Politics.
The organisation collated donations from political action committees (PACs) set up by the companies, soft money donors – whose contributions are not limited by Federal law – and individuals who gave more than $200 (EUR153) and found that, in general, Big Pharma people back Mitt Romney over Barack Obama, with a few exceptions.
Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca gave a combined $924,917 to both campaigns, 53 per cent of which went to the Republican party.
Similarly, 61 per cent of the $723,076 donated by US company Eli Lilly and 52 per cent of Swiss drugmaker Novartis’ $514,680 contribution went to the Romney campaign. France’s Sanofi also favoured the right wing party, sending 58 per cent of its $319,726 contribution in Romney’s direction.
Abbott Laboratories gave just over $1m, 60 per cent of which went to the Republican party.
US industry group Pharma also contributed more to the Republican party, giving 62 per cent of the $184,113 it contributed to the Romney campaign.
In contrast Pfizer, whose donation was the largest, favoured the Obama campaign, giving 52 per cent of the $1.4m it contributed to the democrats. Merck & Co also sent more of its contribution in a left wing direction, giving the incumbent president’s electoral efforts 52 per cent of its $841,734 donation.
Bristol Myers Squibb also favoured the democrats, adding 53 per cent of its $183,975 to the coffers of president Obama’s campaign.
UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) donation was divided evenly with 50 per cent of the $595,769 it stumped up going to each party.