Mehmet Oz , the celebrity heart surgeon running in Pennsylvanias Republican U.S. Senate primary, says he cant be bought by the lobbying interests that wield power in Congress, including one he knows well as a doctor: Big Pharma.

But Oz, whos traded his TV show and surgery scrubs to run for office in a state he hadnt lived in since attending the University of Pennsylvania, has a history of embracing both Big Pharma and, alternatively, quack science that eschews drug companies and their products.

If you dont take on big authority groups, they just bulldoze you over, Oz said on The Dom Giordano Program, a Philadelphia radio show, earlier this month. Big Pharma, Big Tech, agrichemical companies Ive taken these guys on. I have the scars to prove it, and I cant be bought.

Big Pharma, which isnt as popular a GOP target as Big Tech, refers to the global pharmaceutical giants that produce drugs and medical devices and that spend liberally to get lawmakers to do their bidding.

Its not a new concept for Oz, who established a medical career as a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon with 11 patents and an appointment on Columbia Universitys faculty. Drug companies pay doctors like Oz handsomely to give promotional talks and to do consulting.

Ozs business ventures show he has welcomed money from the pharmaceutical interests he claims he has taken on. At the same time, hes gotten rich while promoting bogus weight loss products and bizarre alternative cures that even Oz himself conceded dont pass scientific muster.

His website for Oz Media previously listed pharma giants Aventis (known now as Sanofi), Bayer and Novartis as corporate clients, according to a 2017 screenshot of a now-defunct page shared with HuffPost. Other clients at the time included Costco, Google and Hard Rock Casino.