The Political Economy of Market Power in Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical industry is among the most politically powerful business sectors in the United States today. This article describes how this industry has successfully entrenched its power, with attention to four sources of power: property power, vertical power over politics, ideational power, and material power. Attempts to reform the industry must grapple with these forms of power, which are not easily separated and which, in the current environment, tend to reinforce one another.