On JRE episode #2469, healthcare entrepreneur Brigham Buhler laid out a contradiction at the center of Eli Lilly’s lobbying efforts against compounded peptides.
According to him, Eli Lilly was publicly and privately arguing that Chinese-sourced peptide ingredients were dangerous, while simultaneously signing a $7 billion deal to acquire a peptide company out of China.
Buhler described what he personally witnessed when meeting with legislators: “What I have seen from being able to get behind the scenes and meet with lobbyists and legislators at the state and federal level is the lobbying power of big pharma is real. It’s real and it’s intense and it is not going away.”
He explained the argument Eli Lilly and other companies were making to politicians: “If you say they cost us $7 billion and we spent three billion to bring this d**g to market and they’re importing products from China and there’s no safety nets and nobody’s inspecting them and this is what we’re worried about. This is dangerous and this is a liability to the American public. A politician’s ears are going to perk up, especially when you’re lobbying them and funding campaigns and trying to influence those folks.”
Buhler confirmed this was not speculation on his part: “I know that’s what they’re telling these legislators because I’ve met with the legislators at the state and federal level.”
Then he delivered the contradiction directly: “In one breath, you’ve got big pharma companies saying, I’ll use Lily again as an example because they’re the main culprit. Lily is saying peptides are dangerous. They’re getting the API from China. We shouldn’t allow these compounders to make peptides.”
He continued: “Meanwhile, Eli Lilly just signed a $7 billion deal to acquire a peptide company out of China. So, Lily’s buying a peptide company from China while lobbying government officials and saying it’s dangerous to use products from China and these compounders are dangerous and nobody’s regulating it. And there’s just all this misnomer and dogma and it’s confusing if you don’t come from health care.”
Buhler also noted that the $7 billion figure Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk cited as losses was itself misleading: “When Eli Lilly and Novo throw out a 7 billion number, where they’re cooking the books is they’re not telling legislators that a lot of that is gray and black market.”
He put the company’s financial position in context: “Eli Lilly 7xed the value of their company, they’re worth $800 billion. They are literally worth more than most developed nations. This was the biggest blockbuster molecule in the history of the world. In the history of humanity, there has never been a d**g that is this big of a blockbuster. The money was made 50,000 times over.”
