The rising cost of prescription drugs is an issue in midterm races across the country, but nowhere more so than in New Jersey, where one candidate is the recently retired CEO of an actual drug company.
So we decided to take a look at the rhetoric in that race, pitting incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez against former Celgene boss Bob Hugin. In TV ads blanketing New Jersey (and Philadelphia and New York City), Menendez paints his opponent as a craven profiteer, raising prices on patients with no other options. But Hugin argues that Celgene has saved thousands of lives by giving away doses of its banner cancer drug for free to patients who can’t afford it.
Each ad is at least somewhat based in fact, and that seemed like reason enough to explore which claims adhere to the truth, stretch it to its limits, or abandon it outright.
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