After years – perhaps decades – of Democrats treating the pharmaceutical industry as a top foe, the party seems to be warming up to the industry, at least if you carefully read legislative tea leaves from Washington, D.C.

One thing that makes this especially surprising is that the shift is occurring not under the aegis of Sen. Bob Menendez or Rep. Josh Gottheimer, both New Jersey Democrats who represent locales where Big Pharma has a big footprint.

It is occurring rather under the watch of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont democratic socialist who is now chairman of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

[Politics make for strange bedfellows, as everyone who writes or talks about politics (or bedfellows) will eventually observe. Let’s just say that the incentives have aligned somewhat for Sanders and Big Pharma to combine forces. And that should have everyone else worried, perhaps especially Josh Hawley, who also seems to have become a Bernie bedfellow on creating even more government control of pricing in this market. — Ed]