The drug industry is one of the nation's most lucrative, and secretive, businesses. Bush, who supports a benefit that would rely more heavily on private insurers, an approach the industry favors. Gore is also trying to sharpen the distinctions between himself and Mr. Gore is positioning himself as a champion of a far-reaching Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens.ДЄt the same time, his campaign's polls show that the issue resonates strongly with voters. With his heightened, anti-industry stand that consumers are ''being ripped off'' by drug makers, Mr. Thankfully, no one will be fooled by political posturing four months before an election.'' ''If his rhetoric became government policy, patients would suffer. Holmer, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said in a statement. ''It's truly sad to hear the vice president arguing for reducing incentives for biomedical innovation,'' Alan F. And when asked about today's escalating attack, their trade association responded in kind. Gore as the presidential campaign progresses. But industry executives are becoming more nervous about Mr. His support for innovation and new technology endears him to them, and he is not nearly as vociferous a critic as the Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader. ''I see myself as opposing the excesses that have accompanied their enormous market power, excesses that have come at the expense of consumers.''Дrug executives, who have contributed far more to the campaign of Mr. ''I don't see myself as a basher of the pharmaceutical companies,'' Mr. Gore has also been a strong supporter of the biotechnology industry, which through collaborations and mergers is becoming part of the prescription-drug business.

Gore favors legislation that would make that credit permanent.ДЄnd while he argued for greater disclosure of the industry's pricing practices, the vice president allowed that some information probably should remain proprietary. For instance, drug manufacturers are among the biggest beneficiaries of the government's tax credit for research and development, and Mr. The pharmaceutical industry, which responded icily to Mr.Gore's statements today, has in some cases embraced his positions. Gore now criticizes have hired his friends and advisers to represent them as lobbyists. And some of the same drug makers that Mr. A review of his record, though, and a detailed talk with the vice president make clear that his views are more nuanced than his language suggests. Gore is dusting off his Congressional record and past speeches to stake out policies at odds with the manufacturers. He does, in fact, have a long record on the topic, dating to his days as a young Tennessee congressman in the early 1980's, when he played a crucial role in defeating legislation that would have granted drug companies patent extensions on lucrative medicines. Gore cast himself as a longtime critic of what he said were the industry's excessive prices and profits. In an interview on the veranda of his home here, Mr. Attacking the pharmaceutical industry for engaging in ''corporate chutzpah'' and for ''gouging the consumer unfairly,'' Vice President Al Gore said today that he would take on the drug manufacturers next week at campaign stops in battleground states from California to Pennsylvania.

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