ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Congressional efforts by Estes Kefauver, Gaylord Nelson, David Pryor, Edward Kennedy, and others. It offers some basic characteristics of most of the earlier investigative activities of the Congress, as they regard to the Drug industry. The Kefauver Investigation is probably the best known and the first of its kind to receive live television coverage. Gaylord Nelson took the reins after Kefauver's death and he, too, received considerable media attention. In the eyes of Big Pharma at least, Senator Estes Kefauver was the Torquemada of Investigations of the Drug industry. The call for a comprehensive study of the problems associated with prescription Drug benefits led the Task Force (TF) to examine many related issues as well. The TF observed that much of the Drug industry's research and development activities appeared "to provide only minor contributions to medical progress".
