Dialysis companies spend $111 million to kill ballot measure

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dialysis companies have contributed an extraordinary $111 million to defeat a California ballot initiative.

Proposition 8 would cap profits for dialysis clinics that provide treatment for people with damaged kidneys.

A $5 million donation from dialysis company Fresenius pushed the anti-Proposition 8 campaign's total past the $109 million pharmaceutical companies spent two years ago to defeat a measure limiting prescription drug costs.

Proposition 8 opponents have raised more than any group on one side of a U.S. ballot issue since at least 2002. Ads blanketing the California airwaves feature dialysis patients saying passage could lead to clinic closures that endanger their lives.