The knock on Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) from the MAGA far-right is that, despite holding convictions about a fair economy and working class opportunity that in many ways mirror the populist MAGA talking points, Sanders is either: 1) a fake populist because he owns more than one property or 2) disingenuous because he is beholden to “big pharma.”
The latter accusation, spewed by detractors into the comments section nearly every time Sanders posts on social media, derives from a statistic showing that among Sanders’ many small donors, more are employed in the pharmaceutical industry than in any other sector. He has not received, for example, as many donations from workers in auto industry.
Sanders has repeatedly asserted that the donations attributed to “big pharma” by his critics don’t come from corporate donations, but rather from individuals who work in the pharmaceutical business — but the explanation has failed to change the accusatory tenor of the comments.
On Friday, however, Sanders confounded many of those same MAGA critics by proposing a bill that would make it illegal for drug companies — those which purportedly paid for his support — to advertise prescription medications directly to the consumer.
(In reaction, one MAGA commenter remaining with the narrative, wrote: “Pfizer is calling Bernie now to remind him who his bosses really are.”)
The announcement, made by Sanders and Sen. Angus King (I-ME), reads in part:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) today introduced the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, legislation that would ban prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms and social media.”
The bill aligns with calls by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eradicate the practice. As one MAHA/MAGA advocate wrote of Sanders’s bill: “Wasn’t expecting support from that direction, but certainly welcome it.”
Big win for MAHA
Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King
just cosponsored a bill to ban drug adsNow it heads to committee—momentum is building. pic.twitter.com/HAeNilz1Dc
— MAHA PAC
(@MAHA_PAC) June 13, 2025
It is one of the few instances where Sanders aligns with Kennedy or any Trump administration initiative.
For decades, Sec. Kennedy has spread lies about vaccines. Now, his misinformation will lead to preventable illness & death.
Firing independent experts is a dangerous move that makes it harder for Americans to access vaccines that are safe, effective & essential to saving lives. pic.twitter.com/3pdGe02Jyw
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 9, 2025
Saying that the “American people are sick and tired of greedy pharmaceutical companies spending billions of dollars on absurd TV commercials pushing their outrageously expensive prescription drugs,” Sanders noted that New Zealand is the only other country “in the world” that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise their drugs on television.
The two Senators report that Big Pharma spent more than $5 billion on TV ads last year alone.
The traditional doctor-patient relationship, through which medications were introduced and prescribed, was essentially superseded by the corporation-consumer relationship when Direct-to-Consumer drug advertising was made legal in 1997 on a first amendment argument — a challenge the new bill will also face.
Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, released new guidelines designed to protect consumers from the tendency of the drug ads to offer misleading information.
Those guidelines, which the Sanders legislation would make unnecessary, required drug ads to present “the major statement in a clear, concise, conspicuous and neutral manner” on TV and radio.