Public anger at Pharma and its outrageous prices has never been higher. First a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, refused to explain or defend his price hike of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 on the Hill in February, a price hike that could put the life-saving drug out of reach for some. With clear derision for regulators and the public itself, he tweeted that lawmakers were “imbeciles” after he testified. Then Mylan jacked the price of its EpiPen, an emergency allergy treatment that saves lives, to $600 up from the $100 almost overnight this summer. After public uproar, Mylan offered EpiPen cost breaks to low-income people–a common Pharma ruse that simply shifts costs to others while letting Pharma keep its prices.

And even as U.S. Pharma companies profiteer on older drugs like Daraprim (and newer drugs like the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi which costs $84,000 a course of treatment), they try to duck U.S. taxes with overseas partnerships and incorporations. The same taxes that fund their drugs in Medicare, TRICARE, the VA and other U.S. entitlement programs.

Pharma may be becoming one of the public's most reviled sectors but the U.S. government is in the process of erasing the few regulatory firewalls that have existed and tolerating alarming conflicts of interest.

Exhibit A is the nomination and confirmation earlier this year of Robert Califf as FDA Commissioner despite financial links to 23 Pharma companies including Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, Schering Plough and GSK according to a statement on the website of Duke Clinical Research Institute which he directed. In disclosure information for an article in Circulation, Califf also lists financial links to Gambro, Regeneron, Gilead, AstraZeneca, Roche and other companies and equity positions in four medical companies. Califf “served as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant or trustee for Genentech,” said the Medscape website. This is an FDA Commissioner?

In the past, someone so heavily funded by industry would not be considered for a government position regulating that very industry. Yet on PBS, Califf saw no problem with doctors and researchers receiving Pharma money and actually thought it desirable. "Many of us consult with the pharmaceutical industry, which I think is a very good thing," he told host Susan Dentzer. "They need ideas and then the decision about what they do is really up to the person who is funding the study," he said.