Despite two decades of dire health warnings and threats of federal intervention, the specialty drugmakers at the center of the nation’s deadly outbreak have repeatedly staved off tougher federal oversight with the help of powerful allies in Congress.
Over the years, industry friends like Tom DeLay, the former House Republican leader from Texas, have come to its defense. Even Senator Edward M. Kennedy, regarded as the strongest health care advocate in Congress in recent times, dropped efforts to impose new safeguards.
