Bust Big Pharma

President Trump got 16 of America's largest pharmaceutical companies to the table. He applied real pressure, extracted public commitments on drug pricing that no previous administration had managed to get, and announced the deals from the White House. It should have been a historic win for American patients.

Then the SEC filings came out.

In this replay of Episode 6, Rob Burgess walks through what those 16 companies told their shareholders — in legally binding documents where they cannot misrepresent material fact — about what they actually agreed to. The gap between the public announcement and the private disclosure is what this episode is about.

In this episode:

• What the MFN deals actually required — and what companies committed to publicly vs. what they disclosed to investors
• Why Merck and Sanofi's SEC filings describe these as three-year deals — not the permanent reform the announcement suggested
• How the pricing provisions cover Medicaid only, leaving two thirds of Americans with private insurance untouched
• The Sanofi clause: a company that shook the president's hand then told shareholders it reserves the right to withhold drugs from American markets if pricing terms are "unacceptable"
• Why Eli Lilly and Pfizer's own filings acknowledge binding final agreements hadn't been signed when the deals were announced
• How pharma accepted three-year voluntary deals while their lawyers work to kill the longer mandatory Medicare programs in court
• Four specific things Congress and the administration should do right now — and why codification is the only thing Big Pharma is actually afraid of

The bottom line: This episode is not an argument against President Trump's drug pricing agenda. It's an argument for taking it further. The president started something real. The SEC filings show exactly how Big Pharma is planning to escape it. The answer is codification — permanent, enforceable, comprehensive law that doesn't expire in three years.

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#BustBigPharma #DrugPricing #MostFavoredNation #BigPharma #PharmaReform #MAHA #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain #Trump #DrugPriceReform #SECFilings #Codification #PrescriptionDrugPrices #AmericansForPharmaReform

Big Pharma has one argument they wheel out every single time anyone tries to hold them accountable. Touch our prices and you'll kill innovation. It sounds compelling. It's made legislators flinch for decades. It's made ordinary Americans hesitate. And in Episode 5 of Bust Big Pharma, Rob Burgess runs it through the data — study by study, number by number, company by company.

The results are not what the industry would like you to see.

This episode is the most research-dense of the series so far. Rob pulls from peer-reviewed studies in the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association, a decade of FDA approval data, and the industry's own audited financial filings to build a case that the innovation argument isn't a fact. It's a defense. And it doesn't hold up.

In this episode:

• The 15 largest drug companies spent $800 billion more on marketing than on R&D over 20 years — from their own financial filings
• Drug prices have no meaningful correlation to what those drugs cost to develop — peer-reviewed, Journal of the American Medical Association
• Cancer drug prices have no meaningful correlation to how well those drugs actually work — same journal
• 60% of genuinely new drugs are discovered at small, unprofitable startups — not at the companies running the lobbying campaigns
• The Humira case study: $42 billion in price increases. Six new drugs in a decade. 45 times less efficient than the industry average
• Why pharma's financial incentives are actively steering R&D away from diabetes and heart disease and toward ultra-high-priced rare disease drugs
• Where pharmaceutical innovation actually comes from — and why American taxpayers fund the first risk every single time
• The one regulatory reform that turbocharged AIDS and cancer drug development in the 1980s — and why expanding it is a conservative, market-based solution

The bottom line: This is not an innovation system. It's a pricing system with an innovation story attached to it. The data says so. Their own books say so. And the American people deserve to know.

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#BustBigPharma #DrugPricing #PharmaceuticalIndustry #BigPharma #PharmaReform #MAHA #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain #DrugPriceReform #Innovation #RFKJr #Humira #OrphanDrugs #PrescriptionDrugPrices #AmericansForPharmaReform

In 2025, AbbVie cut its research and development budget by 29% — the steepest R&D cut of any major pharmaceutical company that year. In the same year, AbbVie's CEO received a 75% pay raise, bringing his total compensation to $32.5 million. Same company. Same year. Same pool of capital.

That's where Episode 9 starts. And it only gets more specific from there.

Rob Burgess follows the money through the full 2025 financial picture for the 16 largest pharmaceutical companies — the advertising budgets, the executive compensation structures, the shareholder returns, the R&D cuts, and the 22,000 jobs eliminated — and then audits the decade of leadership at PhRMA, the industry's most powerful lobbying organization, that produced these numbers. Every argument the industry makes in defense of its behavior gets examined against the data. None of them hold.

In this episode:

• AbbVie: 75% CEO pay raise, 29% R&D cut, workers laid off — all in the same year
• The 16 largest pharma companies combined cut $5.9 billion from research in 2025 while returning $97 billion to shareholders
• $9 billion in direct-to-consumer advertising in 2025 — up from $6 billion in 2020 — and how the 1997 FDA rule change made it all possible
• Why Trump's September 2025 executive order on misleading drug ads and the FDA's enforcement crackdown are the right moves — and why the rulemaking needs to be codified into law
• How equity-based CEO compensation is structurally designed to reward price increases over research investment
• A decade-long audit of PhRMA's leadership: $305 million in lobbying, drug spending up 60%, advertising tripled, the revolving door kept spinning
• The four industry arguments for high prices, examined one by one against 2025 data
• Three reforms that would change the system's incentives without telling a single company to stop innovating

The bottom line: The innovation argument is not a fact. It's a cover story. The financial filings say so. A decade of data says so. AbbVie says so with every allocation decision it made in 2025.

🔔 New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one. 🌐 Get involved at BustBigPharma.com

#DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #BigPharmaExposed #PharmaGreed #CorruptionWatch

The FDA is supposed to be your watchdog. The agency that stands between you and an industry that, left unchecked, will prioritize profits over your safety. So what happens when the watchdog goes to work for the industry it was supposed to be watching?

In this replay of Episode 4, Rob Burgess names names. Three of them. Patrizia Cavazzoni ran the FDA's drug approval center for years — then left for Pfizer as Chief Medical Officer. Peter Marks spent nine years as the FDA's top vaccine regulator — then landed at Eli Lilly as Senior Vice President. Scott Gottlieb ran the entire FDA — then joined Pfizer's board of directors within months of leaving. Rob breaks down what each of them knew, what that knowledge is worth, and why the current law allows all of it.

In this episode:

• How the FDA really works — and why the people running it hold enormous power over the entire pharmaceutical industry
• Patrizia Cavazzoni: eight years at Pfizer, then head of FDA drug approvals, then back to Pfizer as CMO
• Peter Marks: nine years overseeing FDA vaccine approvals, then Senior VP at Eli Lilly — alongside his former deputy
• Scott Gottlieb: ran the whole FDA, joined Pfizer's board within months, and still appears in the press as a "neutral" voice on drug policy
• Why the FDA's funding structure — hundreds of millions in fees paid directly by pharma — creates a conflict of interest baked into the system
• Four specific reforms that would fix it: longer cooling off periods, a ban on board service, mandatory public disclosure, and enforceable recusal

The bottom line: The people running America's drug approval process are one year away from going to work for the companies that want drugs to be expensive. That's industry first, not America First

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One drug. One molecule. 154 patents. That's not a typo — and in this replay episode of Bust Big Pharma, Rob Burgess explains exactly what it means for your pharmacy bill.

Ozempic is the most talked-about drug in America right now. But behind the celebrity endorsements and the glossy TV ads is a story most people never hear: how Novo Nordisk built a legal fortress around a single molecule to keep cheaper competition off the market for years — and how much that delay is worth to them. The answer is $166 billion. Rob breaks down the patent thicketing playbook, why the GLP-1 market changes everything, and how Most Favored Nation pricing is the policy that Big Pharma is actually scared of.

In this episode:

• What a patent thicket is — and why 154 patents around one drug should make every American angry
• The $166 billion Novo Nordisk stands to collect by keeping generics out until 2031
• Why the GLP-1 market is projected to hit $100 billion a year — and what companies will do to protect that
• How real competition would drop prices 50-90% — and why it's being blocked
• Why Americans pay $900-$1,300 a month for drugs that cost a fraction of that overseas
• Most Favored Nation pricing explained — and why Big Pharma fought it so hard

The bottom line: This isn't just an Ozempic story. It's a playbook. And once you see how it works, you start seeing it everywhere.

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The Bust Big Pharma bus tour has now crossed more than 30 states, done hundreds of events, and collected enough petition signatures and engagement data to identify exactly which Senate races Big Pharma is most vulnerable in. The man who ran the ground operation for the 2025 tour knows exactly what that looked like from the inside.

In Episode 12, Rob sits down with Corey Stevens — former National Field Director for Americans for Pharma Reform — to talk about what happens when you take this issue directly to the American people. Town halls in rural New Mexico. 180 people showing up in a Texas border town. An elderly couple in Michigan asking for a bucket of stress ball remotes because they're fed up with pharma ads on their TV. Corey breaks down what he saw on the ground, what it told him about the 2026 map, and what he's telling his candidates right now.

In this episode:

• What it looks like when 200 people who agree on nothing else agree passionately on one thing: Big Pharma is ripping them off
• How the bus tour identified Bill Cassidy as a red flag — months before Louisiana voters sent him home
• Why Ken Paxton winning in Texas is not a coincidence — it's a pattern
• The difference between political capital and voter currency, and why pharma can't buy the second one
• What down-ballot candidates — city council, state rep, state senate — can start saying right now to make drug pricing a local issue
• Why pharma's DTC advertising jingles are targeting the next generation of patients — and what that means for families
• How engagement data from petition signatures, QR scans, and event turnout functions as a heat map for where the reform movement goes next
• The Michigan moment: one elderly couple, a bucket of stress ball remotes, and what it tells you about where this movement is headed

The bottom line: Big Pharma has $450 million in lobbying. AFPR has a bus, a petition, and a growing list of voters who are fed up. Corey Stevens spent 2025 crossing the country collecting proof that the second thing is more powerful than the first.

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#DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #BigPharmaExposed #PharmaGreed #CorruptionWatch

Last week, Ken Paxton won the Republican Senate primary runoff in Texas. He beat John Cornyn — six-term incumbent, former Senate majority whip, the establishment's choice — because Texas Republican primary voters chose the candidate who had sued Big Pharma. Multiple times. Using words like "illegal" and "bribe."

The week before that, Bill Cassidy lost in Louisiana. In Episode 11, Rob Burgess connects those two results to four other Senate races unfolding right now — and shows you exactly what to do with the information.

Texas. Ohio. Georgia. Colorado. New Jersey. In every one of these races, pharmaceutical accountability has emerged as a defining issue. Rob examines each one honestly — the legislative records, the contribution histories, the rhetorical commitments versus the documented actions — and closes with three specific questions every voter should be asking their Senate candidates before November.

In this episode:

• Ken Paxton's actual record against Big Pharma: the Eli Lilly lawsuit, the February kickback lawsuit, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb — lawsuits, not press releases
• The Texas Democratic nominee ran on pharmaceutical accountability too. Both candidates in the Texas Senate race are running against Big Pharma.
• Ohio: Sherrod Brown's legislative record on drug pricing, his $1.4 million in pharmaceutical contributions, and the question this show asks regardless of party
• Georgia: Jon Ossoff passed two laws. The Inflation Reduction Act delivered 38-79% price reductions on ten drugs. That's not a campaign ad — it's a result.
• New Jersey: Cory Booker, pharmaceutical industry concentration, and what returning donations actually means
• Colorado: The accountability argument is now penetrating Democratic primaries — the same dynamic that ended Cassidy's career in a Republican primary
• 91% of Republican voters, 70% of independents, 64% of Democrats support MFN codification. The primaries are starting to reflect it.
• Three questions to ask every Senate candidate before you vote — with specific answers that separate a record from a talking point

The bottom line: The pharmaceutical industry cannot lobby every voter. It can lobby every senator. Your job is to create senators the lobby cannot own.

🔔 New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one. 🌐 Get involved at BustBigPharma.com

#DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #BigPharmaExposed #PharmaGreed #CorruptionWatch

On May 16th, Bill Cassidy — Chairman of the Senate Health Committee and the top Republican recipient of pharmaceutical money in the 2024 cycle — came in third in his own Republican primary. A senator who took over $1 million from Big Pharma, blocked a fast-track MFN vote, and killed his own codification bill before it ever got a hearing was sent home by the voters of Louisiana.

In Episode 10, Rob Burgess uses that result as the opening argument — and then spends the rest of the episode dismantling every major industry argument standing between American patients and drug pricing reform.

The innovation argument. The China argument. The supply chain argument. The price controls argument. One by one, on the merits, with the data. And then: what TrumpRx actually is, what it isn't, why the industry cooperates with it, and why MFN codification is the bill they're spending $450 million a year to prevent from ever coming due.

In this episode:

• Bill Cassidy: $1 million from Big Pharma, blocked MFN, killed his own bill — then lost his primary
• 89% of Republican voters support MFN codification. $600 billion in projected patient savings. Why it still hasn't passed.
• The innovation argument, run through 2025 financial data: $5.9 billion cut from research, $97 billion returned to shareholders, $9 billion on advertising
• The China argument exposed: the same industry warning Congress about Chinese competition spent $137 billion funding pharmaceutical development inside China
• The supply chain argument: the industry that offshored API manufacturing for 40 years to maximize margins is now lecturing Congress about supply chain security
• The price controls argument: why MFN pricing is not socialism, it's the deal every other developed nation already has
• TrumpRx: what it is, who it helps, why the industry cooperates with it, and why it doesn't threaten the pricing architecture that matters
• The empty chair: why the next Senate Health Committee chairman determines whether MFN becomes permanent law or stays a voluntary program pharma can ignore
• The conservative case for drug pricing accountability — markets, America First, and cronyism vs. capitalism

The bottom line: The industry's math has always been about money. The reform movement's math is about votes. The votes won — in Louisiana, on a Saturday night. Every member of Congress sitting on pharmaceutical contributions should be doing the same math right now.

🔔 New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one. 🌐 Get involved at BustBigPharma.com

#DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #BigPharmaExposed #PharmaGreed #CorruptionWatch

Big Pharma has so much money, they don't just buy politicians — they rent both parties. That's not a conspiracy theory. That's a quote from RFK Jr., and it's exactly what Republican strategist Chris Faulkner breaks down in this episode of Bust Big Pharma.

This week's episode is a replay of a previous episode where Rob Burgess sat down with Chris — a veteran political consultant who joined the Bust Big Pharma bus tour across the Southeast — to talk about why Congress won't act on drug pricing, what the 2026 midterms mean for pharma reform, and how everyday Americans can actually move the needle, because in May of 2026, this conversation matters more than ever before.

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In 2025, AbbVie cut its research and development budget by 29% — the steepest R&D cut of any major pharmaceutical company that year. In the same year, AbbVie's CEO received a 75% pay raise, bringing his total compensation to $32.5 million. Same company. Same year. Same pool of capital.

That's where Episode 9 starts. And it only gets more specific from there.

Rob Burgess follows the money through the full 2025 financial picture for the 16 largest pharmaceutical companies — the advertising budgets, the executive compensation structures, the shareholder returns, the R&D cuts, and the 22,000 jobs eliminated — and then audits the decade of leadership at PhRMA, the industry's most powerful lobbying organization, that produced these numbers. Every argument the industry makes in defense of its behavior gets examined against the data. None of them hold.

In this episode:

• AbbVie: 75% CEO pay raise, 29% R&D cut, workers laid off — all in the same year
• The 16 largest pharma companies combined cut $5.9 billion from research in 2025 while returning $97 billion to shareholders
• $9 billion in direct-to-consumer advertising in 2025 — up from $6 billion in 2020 — and how the 1997 FDA rule change made it all possible
• Why Trump's September 2025 executive order on misleading drug ads and the FDA's enforcement crackdown are the right moves — and why the rulemaking needs to be codified into law
• How equity-based CEO compensation is structurally designed to reward price increases over research investment
• A decade-long audit of PhRMA's leadership: $305 million in lobbying, drug spending up 60%, advertising tripled, the revolving door kept spinning
• The four industry arguments for high prices, examined one by one against 2025 data
• Three reforms that would change the system's incentives without telling a single company to stop innovating

The bottom line: The innovation argument is not a fact. It's a cover story. The financial filings say so. A decade of data says so. AbbVie says so with every allocation decision it made in 2025.

🔔 New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one. 🌐 Get involved at BustBigPharma.com

#DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #BigPharmaExposed #PharmaGreed #CorruptionWatch