Governments are made of people. People who like money and are more loyal to money than the voters. Voter can't buy politician a nice beach front property or placement at prestigious school for children. Big pharma can do that easily.
They just need to make enough theatre for general public to believe they serve them and just let that cash roll in, while they make lives of millions a misery.
I’m no fan of big pharma I’m just saying the government had a big role in fighting against research in to these drugs. I don’t know if lobbying would have been successful against Reagan or Bush for example.
The pharma industry spends more money lobbying US politicians than any other, almost twice as much as the next largest spender; 64% of pharma lobbyists are former government employees