The company’s Position on Universal Health Coverage states that Patients and communities must have access to care, including drugs, vaccines, surgical care, and other medical technologies needed to prevent and treat diseases and address public health needs. Yet prices for needed medication continue to be a barrier to access for many patients in the US. Efforts to reform the pricing system to improve access have been systematically opposed by the industry’s leading lobbying organization, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). PhRMA raised nearly $527 million in 2020 and spent roughly $506 million, including making multi-million-dollar donations to numerous other organizations like the American Action Network for use in opposing congressional efforts to address drug pricing.1 PhRMA also launched a vigorous lobbying effort against a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines designed to boost production of vaccines in developing countries (the TRIPS waiver). PhRMA also sits on the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which has been involved in highly controversial lobbying activity including advocating for the privatization of Medicare and Medicaid and opposition to drug pricing reforms and prescription drug importation.2 Johnson & Johnson’s Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Jennifer Taubert, sits on the PhRMA board of directors. The positions the company adopts should not be undermined by lobbying efforts undertaken by organizations the company supports financially. While a company may not support every position taken by the trade associations to which it belongs, proper risk management requires that the board at least be aware of inconsistencies and evaluate whether they are salient to the company and therefore require mitigation. With regard to the company’s own lobbying – on which it spent $3,280,000 dollars of its own money on lobbying in the first two quarters of 2021, focused on drug pricing legislation, amongst other things3 – a similar review of alignment is in order. Shareholders have an interest in the use of company funds to support lobbying efforts that may have negative effects on the company’s reputation, its stated positions on public policy and regulatory concerns, and on matters of public interest such as COVID-19 recovery efforts which affect our global economy. For these reasons, we urge shareholders to support the proposal.