Drug firms may be spending as much as €91m a year on lobbying in Europe

The drug industry’s lobbying power in Europe dwarfs that of opposing campaign groups and is largely hidden thanks to lax rules that allow drug companies to conceal how much they spend on attempts to influence European Union policy, a new report claims.

The report, produced by the charities Corporate Europe Observatory and Health Action International Europe, says that the industry is known to spend more than €40m (£33m; $53m) a year in attempts to influence decision making in the EU. It says that nearly half of this sum is spent by drug manufacturers on their own in-house lobbyists.

By contrast, campaign groups active on …