This graphic was published in the 5/2002 AARP Bulletin http://www.aarp.org/bulletin

The article is very frightening, as it shows why Congress pushes the FDA to consider Lilly, and not the people of the US, to be the FDA's clients. It also speaks to "Astroturf Lobbying."

The article is "DRUGMAKERS WAGE HIGH-PRICED FIGHT The industry spends millions each year on political influence" and reports on the propagandistic work of the "Astroturf Lobbying" in which the propaganda units of big pharmaceutical companies create fake grassroots political groups to push for the legislation they want to keep drug prices high and unavailable to many. Diabetes and insulin are just the tip of the iceberg.

Other reliable sources report that Eli Lilly is the largest single political contributor of the pharmaceutical industry. No wonder they can lie about human insulin!

If the money spent to buy Congress were spent on AIDS and Diabetes Research targeting cures, both of these fatal diseases would be cured.

The true total, of course, is indeterminable, and the pharmaceutical companies employed over 625 lobbyists in 2000, more than the total number of Senators, Congressional Representatives and Agents serving in the US Congress! These lobbyists were paid more than an average of $12,000 per month each. More than half of these lobbyists had worked on Capitol Hill or in other federal government jobs (including working for the FDA).

This is obscene and we encourage all to support Public Citizen and the AARP in resolving these problems. The amounts spent on advertising and lobbying dwarf the amounts spent on Research!