Troy Jackson, Who Called Big Pharma 'the Anti-Christ,' Spotted Campaigning With Lobbyists Who Repped Pharma Company That Jacked Up Price of Cystic Fibrosis Drug

Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Troy Jackson has referred to the pharmaceutical industry as "the anti-Christ" and attacked "high-priced lobbyists and corporate greed." He also appears to have a close relationship with a pair of Maine lobbyists who represented a pharmaceutical company that faced intense criticism for jacking up the price of its cystic fibrosis drug.

The lobbyists, Kate Knox and Alysia Melnick of Bernstein Shur, were spotted in the background of a September 27 "Families for Troy" event in which Jackson "met with parents, guardians, and kids in Portland," according to a facial recognition search, the results of which were corroborated by a Maine political veteran familiar with Knox and Melnick. The pair appear to have been invited by Jackson's campaign.

Melnick and Knox have worked as registered lobbyists since at least 2024, according to Maine Ethics Commission data. That year, they began representing Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based drug developer that generated $12 billion in revenue in 2025. The pair lobbied on a bill calling to increase patients' access to drugs like Journavx, a non-opioid pain medicine developed by Vertex. Jackson, who served as president of the Maine Senate at the time, submitted testimony in favor of the bill that cited the drug (using its research name, VX-548) as "promising" and "game changing," echoing the testimony of an advocacy group funded by Vertex. Jackson had a prior relationship with Knox, who represented him and a number of other Maine Democrats in a 2017 case related to Maine's then-newly-approved ranked-choice voting law.

Jackson's embrace of Vertex—and, seemingly, its lobbyists—came one year after the company sparked controversy by moving to "slash the amount of financial assistance that it offers to patients" receiving its brand-name cystic fibrosis medicine, Orkambi, as the health care publication STAT News reported. Vertex reduced the annual copay assistance it offered for the drug "from approximately $100,000 a year to $20,000." A man in Utah who needed the drug for his two-year-old daughter went from paying "just $180 out of pocket each year to a whopping $43,600," prompting him to change his health insurance. Even with the change, the drug cost him $7,500 in 2023.

"It makes me mad to no end," the man, Dan Brickey, told STAT. "They put a price on our daughter's life and it's financially strained our family. … That medication is already expensive, so why make it more expensive?" Vertex went on to sue the drugmaker Lupin in an attempt to block its generic version of Orkambi.

Jackson's campaign told the Washington Free Beacon that Jackson's Republican opponent, incumbent senator Susan Collins, "has repeatedly voted against lowering prescription drug costs," while Jackson "has successfully lowered prescription drug costs for Mainers ensuring they can access life-saving medication." Melnick and Knox did not respond to a request for comment sent to Bernstein Shur. Vertex did not respond to requests for comment. Harvard University president Alan Garber is a member of Vertex's board, a role that earned him more than $545,000 in total compensation in 2025 in addition to his Harvard base salary of $1.4 million.

The "Families for Troy" event featuring Melnick and Knox is the latest example of Jackson's close ties to the lobbying industry he decries on the campaign trail.

In 2021, Jackson's former chief of staff and current campaign adviser, B.J. McCollister, left Jackson's office to launch Resurgam Group, a "full service lobbying" firm that pledged to "leverage our strong existing relationships" in the state legislature to "help deliver results." One year later, in 2022, McCollister brought on Jackson's son, Chace Jackson, as a partner.

Chace Jackson landed plenty of clients as his father led the Maine Senate. In 2024, Troy Jackson's final year as president of the chamber, the Resurgam Group received $182,500 in lobbying compensation from nine of Chace Jackson's clients. They included corporations like Diageo, the alcoholic beverage behemoth headquartered in London that owns the "ultra-premium tequila" brand Casamigos and the whiskey brand Johnnie Walker. They also included the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, the state's leading gun control group, which lobbied on a pair of 2024 gun control bills which Troy Jackson, a former Second Amendment supporter who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2022, voted in favor of.

Troy Jackson has nonetheless attacked lobbyists while campaigning for statewide office in Maine. In an April candidate questionnaire, Jackson, a self-described "working-class voice," said he was running for office because "high-priced lobbyists" were hurting everyday Mainers.

"I'm tired of good bills that would help lower prescription drug costs, protect workers, stop the spraying of harmful chemicals and so much more get vetoed," he said. "I'm tired of folks being told to hold on, wait a little longer or that now is not the right time. All thanks to the work of special interests, high-priced lobbyists and corporate greed."

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