NYT: Industry Fights to Put Imprint on Drug Bill

[NashVegas]

Headline should read: CEO leans on Execs to donate to W or ELSE...

n the thick of the 2000 presidential campaign, executives at Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the nation's largest drug companies, received an urgent message: donate money to George W. Bush.

The message did not come from Republican campaign officials. It came from top Bristol-Myers executives, according to four executives who say they donated to Mr. Bush under pressure from their bosses. They said that they were urged to donate the maximum — $1,000 in their own name and $1,000 in their spouse's — and were warned that the company's chief executive would be notified if they failed to give.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/05/business/05MEDI.html?hp