Debbie Stabenow in 2002: I'm going to fix the prescription drug problem

Press Release

The John James for US Senate campaign called out Sen. Debbie Stabenow for another election-year appeal, where Stabenow claims to be fighting against skyrocketing prescription drug costs and abuses by the big pill pushers, despite taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the industry since becoming a senator in 2000.

Stabenow recently said, "the worst part of our system is when money gets ahead of people." Unfortunately, when it comes to prescription drugs and the opioid crisis, that is exactly what Stabenow is doing: prioritizing money over people, representing the worst part of our system.

Between 2005-2006 Stabenow accepted $18,000 directly from Mylan and its CEO. Mylan, the disgraced pharmaceutical company1 that purchased the EpiPen (adevice used to provide emergency epinephrine to stop a potentially fatal allergic reaction), was heavily criticized for raising its price from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase.

Stabenow, who ran on prescription drug reform when first elected to the Senate in 2000, took on a leadership role2 in 2002 arguing that, "people who need life-saving medicine cannot afford it." Those words are in stark contrast to EpiPen's practice of drastically increasing the price of the life-saving device repeatedly.

Shortly after taking up prescription drug costs as a top issue, Stabenow started taking in checks from Mylan's Super PAC.

In 2017, it came to light that the U.S. government may have overpaid Mylan by as much as $1.27 billion4 between 2006 and 2016 for its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment.

"Despite Stabenow's seemingly tough rhetoric against prescription drug prices going back to 2002, her 43 years in politics, and nearly $4 million in salary from the taxpayers, she's done nothing to reform prescription drug costs outside of accepting the industry's campaign contributions to the tune of nearly $400,000," campaign manager Tori Sachs said. "Stabenow, who has only sponsored five successful bills in her time as a Senator, has a history of turning serious issues into election-year gimmicks."

"Just like veterans issues and education, Stabenow has talked a big game when it comes to prescription drugs and reforming the big pill pushers, but has failed to deliver," Sachs said. "Career politicians like Debbie Stabenow take no real action but collect colossal cash from the industry."

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