Pfizer’s free drugs and the $800 million pill
Pfizer
News Release
July 7, 2004
Pfizer to Launch Comprehensive Initiative Expanding Access to Prescription Medicines for Millions of Americans
Pfizer Inc said today it will launch the pharmaceutical industry’s most comprehensive initiative to significantly expand access to prescription medicines across the United States, with a specific focus on enabling America’s 43 million uninsured to obtain Pfizer medicines at significant savings.
With enrollment beginning in August, Pfizer will provide millions of working families without drug coverage access to Pfizer medicines at an average savings of 37 percent.
“I applaud the steps Pfizer is taking today, which will provide America’s uninsured with access to medicine at significant savings. Pfizer is helping those in dire need get the medicine they often require. This effort holds the promise of helping people in real need, and that is vitally important,” said U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).
http://www.pfizer.com/are/news_releases/2004pr/mn_2004_0707.html
Frequently Asked Questions about Pfizer Pfriends
Does this new program provide health insurance or coverage for the uninsured?
The actions that Pfizer is taking are a first step, not a total solution for the uninsured. We believe that every American should have access to quality, affordable health insurance. In order to get to a place where every American
has access to quality, affordable health care, we will need to develop a solution that involves government, medical professionals, nonprofits and the private sector. Pfizer is committed to playing an active role in getting to that solution.
http://www.pfizer.com/are/news_releases/2004pr/mn_2004_0707_qa.html
The New York Times
July 8, 2004
Drug Companies Seek to Mend Their Image
By Gardiner Harris
Acknowledging its dismal public standing, Pfizer, the nation’s largest drug company, held a news conference on Wednesday to announce an effort to provide discounted drugs to the working poor and anyone without health insurance.
In a series of presentations, executives at Pfizer, which is based in New York, said yesterday that they were starting the discount program – whose cost will not significantly affect the company’s profits, they said – because it was the right thing to do.
New America Foundation
July 8, 2004
The $800 Million Pill: What Drives the Cost of Prescription Drugs?
Why do life-saving prescription drugs cost so much? Drug companies insist that prices reflect the millions they invest in research and development. In his book The $800 Million Pill, Merrill Goozner contends that American taxpayers are in fact footing the bill twice: once by supporting government-funded research and again by paying astronomically high prices for prescription drugs. Goozner demonstrates that almost all the important new drugs of the past quarter-century actually originated from research at taxpayer-funded universities and at the National Institutes of Health.
He reports that once the innovative work is over, the pharmaceutical industry often steps in to reap the profit. Goozner shows how drug innovation is driven by dedicated scientists intent on finding cures for diseases, not by pharmaceutical firms whose bottom line often takes precedence over the advance of medicine. The $800 Million Pill suggests ways that the government’s role in testing new medicines could be expanded to eliminate the private sector waste driving up the cost of existing drugs.
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=event&EveID=392
Comment: Pfizer’s program creates an administrative nightmare with multiple means-tested programs which will place a significant burden on the health care delivery system. The program will be limited to Pfizer’s products, thereby excluding most prescriptions. Most of the uninsured will still not be able to afford their share of the payment for the drugs in these programs. Since Pfizer has indicated that their generosity will not have a detrimental impact on profits, they obviously realize that this program will have a negligible impact when compared to existing needs.
The conclusions in Merrill Goozner’s report lead to a persuasive argument that Pfizer and the other pharmaceutical firms have an ethical obligation to cooperate with our public agencies in ensuring that everyone has affordable access to essential medications.
Pfizer states that they are “committed to playing an active role” in getting to a solution, which involves the government, wherein every American would, have access to “quality, affordable health insurance.” Pfizer would have more credibility if we saw the least inkling of “playing an active role in getting to that solution.”