GREED WATCH: As Republicans Raise Drug Costs For Seniors and Taxpayers, Big Pharma’s Forecasts And Bottom Lines Rejoice

Drugmakers Raked in $345 Billion in the First Half of 2025, Spent More Rewarding Shareholders Than On R&D, And Celebrated Republicans Handing Them A Profit-Padding Win

Big drug companies continue to rake in record-breaking profits and take advantage of the American people with the help of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. In just the first six months of 2025, the largest drug companies have made billions in earnings, not from groundbreaking cures, but from relentless price hikes on life-saving medications. While families ration doses, skip refills, or go into debt just to get prescriptions they need, big drug company CEOs and shareholders are reaping record rewards, pocketing billions in stock buybacks and executive bonuses.

At the same time, these drug companies have turned to Donald Trump and their Republican allies to help protect their profits. In the halls of Congress, Republicans are working overtime, rolling back consumer protections that hold drug companies accountable, blocking efforts to negotiate lower prices, and siding with industry lobbyists over patients. In the GOP budget bill, big drug companies landed a win, which allows them to bypass Medicare negotiations and raise prices on drugs that millions of older Americans rely on. The message from the Republican budget bill is clear: Donald Trump and Republicans are standing with big drug companies, not with the American people.

Data obtained from SEC filings, quarterly reports, and opensecrets.org.
*unreported
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The Companies Manufacturing Drugs Being Negotiated By Medicare Spent More To Reward Shareholders Than On Research and Development This Year.

The 25 drugs selected for Medicare negotiations brought in over $345 billion in revenue so far this year, while the companies that manufacture these drugs raked in $82 billion in combined profits and spent over $62 billion rewarding shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividends. Many of the same drug companies are suing to stop Medicare from negotiating lower prices for seniors and lying to Congress that it will impact innovation. At the same time, CEOs are  bragging about their drug pipelines, acquisitions, and projected growth in earnings calls while spending more on stock buybacks and dividends for shareholders than research and development:

• “AbbVie delivered another outstanding quarter with results exceeding our expectations. We are making excellent progress advancing our pipeline and adding more depth through strategic transactions that support our long-term growth. Based on our momentum through the first half of the year, we are raising guidance for the second time. We now expect full year revenue of $60.5 billion, an increase of $800 million. We have now raised our revenue guidance by $1.5 billion since the start of the year. “ – Robert Michael, CEO of AbbVie on 7/31/25
• “Our second quarter results once again demonstrate GSK’s strong performance momentum – and the quality and strength of our portfolio. Group sales were up 6% for the quarter, core operating profit was up 12%, and core earnings per share grew 15% to 46.5 pence. Alongside operating performance, we continue to make good progress in R&D, with 3 FDA approvals achieved so far this year. With the breadth of our current business, and the growth opportunities we have in our pipeline, we are highly confident in our outlook for sales of more than £40 billion by 2031. And, as we have repeatedly demonstrated with our pipeline development, this long-term outlook has consistently improved, and we are ambitious and committed to do more.” – Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline on 7/30/25
• “Q2 was another strong quarter of financial performance. Revenue grew 38% compared to Q2 2024, driven by our key products. Gross margin as a percentage of revenue was 85% in Q2, an increase of 3 percentage points versus the same quarter last year. We are increasing the bottom and the top end of the revenue range as well as our expectation for performance margins and earnings per share. We now anticipate our revenue will be between $60 billion and $62 billion. This range reflects the strong performance and a tailwind from foreign exchange rates. We will continue to invest to support our newest launches and to develop new medicines.” – Lucas Montarce, CFO of Eli Lilly on 8/7/25

*Jardiance and Tradjenta which are co-manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim, a privately-held company were not included in this analysis. Xtandi revenues only include those reported by Eli Lilly.

Big Drug Companies Spent Millions on Lobbying and Schmoozing Trump at Mar-a-Lago To Land A Huge Win In The Big, Ugly Bill And Blow A Hole In Drug Price Negotiations

Since many of drug companies’ assault of lawsuits to ban Medicare from negotiating lower prescription drug prices didn’t go their way, drug companies turned to their best allies for help: Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. 14 of the biggest drug companies have spent $64 million this year individually on lobbying and have spent an additional $20.6 million lobbying through their trade group, PhRMA. The industry has also been making multimillion-dollar pay to play investments at Mar-A-Lago with CEOs swarming Trump’s lavish fundraising dinners. Now, their efforts are paying off. Thanks to Trump and Republicans in Congress, Big Pharma landed a huge win in the Big, Ugly Bill that will allow them to bypass Medicare drug price negotiations and raise prices on drugs that millions of vulnerable Americans rely on. In granting this multibillion dollar giveaway to drug companies, Republicans will raise out-of-pocket costs for critical drugs that treat conditions such as cancer and hypertension. Many of the drugs that would be exempted under the new loophole are some of the most profitable drugs on the market. While President Trump moves mountains for drug companies, he distracts the public with hollow promises that his fellow colleagues and drugmakers know are not serious. In fact, Republicans in Congress are doubling down on their investments in pharmaceutical stocks with their insider information, investing nearly $3 million in drug company stocks during the first six months of the Trump administration.

• “From a policy perspective, we are very supportive of the language that was put in, in support of orphan drugs. We’ve long believed that investing behind orphan and rare disease is important and that the more we can do to support that, it is something which will benefit patients going forward. So in that sense, we’re very much supportive of what the One Big Beautiful Bill included in that regard.” – Merck CEO Robert Davis, whose best-selling, blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda will now likely be exempted from drug price negotiation, on 7/31/25
• “One important notable change as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the expansion of the IRA orphan drug exemption, drugs with more than one orphan designation are now exempt from IRA negotiations, which will be a benefit to our own cancer therapy, Venclexta. Now with this change, we would not expect Venclexta to be negotiated. And that’s an example of a good policy change.” – AbbVie CEO Robert Michael on 7/31/25
• “It was a net positive that the ORPHAN Cures Act was enacted as part of the recent reconciliation package, which enables medicines to have multiple rare diseases as part of — without having to give up the medicines exclusion from the IRA negotiation price setting. I think that’s a positive overall for the sector.” – Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan on 7/17/25