Abigail Spanberger Is Siding with Big Pharma, Not Patients
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger protects Big Pharma while hardworking Virginians foot the bill. Instead of holding drug manufacturers accountable for price gouging Virginians with astronomical list prices, she parrots the industry's favorite talking points to shift the blame elsewhere. When a politician echoes the drug industry's script and accepts their money, they ally to the corporations, not the people.
Repeating Pharma's Preferred Script
Virginians face some of the highest prescription drug prices in the nation, with an average per-person spending up to 36% higher than the national average. A 2019 survey of Virginians found that more than half (54% of Central Region adults experienced one or more healthcare affordability burdens in the prior 12 months.
Despite affordability being a clear challenge for Virginians, Spanberger's vetoed a bill to create a prescription drug affordability board (PDAB) in Virginia. That bill would have created a state advisory board to lower drug prices and would cut into Big Pharma profits. Instead, her healthcare platform focuses on attacking Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), who negotiate lower drug prices for employees and union healthcare plans. Spanberger's focus on PBMs mirrors one of the pharmaceutical industry's most effective messaging strategies to redirect public anger away from manufacturers that set the underlying list prices of drugs.
Follow the Money
Spanberger cannot claim to have clean hands on Big Pharma while benefiting from political networks financed by the very corporations driving high drug costs. She has emphasized that she rejects direct corporate PAC contributions, however, PolitiFact records show Spanberger accepted money from leadership PACs that are funded by corporate PACs. From early 2021 to mid-2022, at least 57 leadership PACs contributed to Spanberger's campaign. Of these, 48
accepted corporatetied money, including funds connected to pharmaceutical interests like Pfizer's corporate PAC.
In the 2024 governor's race, one of Spanberger's largest reported donors was Todd Stottlemyer, CEO of Acentra Health, a privateequity-backed healthcare software and solutions company, tying her bigdollar fundraising to healthindustry leadership.
A Record With Political Cover
Spanberger's relationship with Big Pharma goes even further. In April 2026, she signed a law to create an "Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing Grant Fund" that can send up to $130 million in state grant money to Eli Lilly over two decades (up to $15 million per year from July 1,2026 through July 1, 2045). That grant program supports an Eli Lilly facility tied to a $2.2 billion manufacturing project in Goochland County. This is part of a broader $5
billion commitment Eli Lilly announced for a major Virginia plant producing active pharmaceutical ingredients for cancer, autoimmune, and other advanced therapies. Spanberger's consumer-friendly positions are political cover that allow her to claim she is tough on drug costs while directing scrutiny away from the pharmaceutical industry.
Virginians Deserve Better
Virginians are drowning in prescription drug costs, and Governor Spanberger is throwing a lifeline to the exact corporations holding our heads underwater. Here at TPAP, we refuse to let her political theater go unchecked. By parroting Big Pharma's favorite talking points while quietly feeding her political machine with their backdoor cash, the Governor is actively selling out patients to protect industry profits.
We are done with the lies, the distractions, and the hollow promises. It is time for Governor Spanberger to stop playing PR spokesperson for the pharmaceutical industry, sever her ties to their money, and start doing the job Virginians elected her to do.
