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Pfizer Will Offer Deep Discounts to Uninsured

July 13, 2004
Drug giant Pfizer says it will deeply discount its drugs for Americans without health insurance and give away more free drugs to low-income patients. The move puts pressure on other drug companies and is expected to affect the reimportation debate in Congress.

Pfizer predicted savings averaging 37 percent for uninsured families making $45,000 a year or less. Pfizer projects that families without health insurance making more than $45,000 a year will save 15 percent.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson praised Pfizer for providing assistance to uninsured families, while members of Congress offered bipartisan praise. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said the initiative shows how private innovation can aid public-policy challenges.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) applauded the initiative and urged “other organizations to do what they can to provide similar benefits to patients that lack health insurance.” Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) said Pfizer is a “model of corporate responsibility” that has “really stepped up to the plate.”

Pat Kelly, president of Pfizer’s U.S. Pharmaceuticals unit, said the company wants to build momentum with its initiative so that other drug companies will want to follow suit. Kelly said he hopes people will “begin to think better of” the pharmaceutical industry, which has been dogged by criticism over high drug prices and undue influence in Washington.

Robert Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a patient advocacy group traditionally critical of the pharmaceutical industry, said Pfizer’s program would “offer real life lines to people in need.” But he argued that the initiative would “help only a small fraction of those in need.”

Hayes said Pfizer’s discounts “show that the drug industry will continue to thrive even with dramatic price cuts” and called for giving the federal government negotiating power for the prescription drug benefits under Medicare.

Pfizer's action gives it a bargaining chip in the Congressional debate on whether to allow reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and the European Union.

Kelly said Pfizer's program will provide a “safe, secure and sustainable supply” of pharmaceuticals in a way “no reimportation scheme could.”

The access program, called Pfizer Pfriends, will accept applications starting next month through an 800 number. Once accepted, patients will receive a card they can use at local pharmacies to get discounted Pfizer drugs.

New York-based Pfizer, the biggest drug company in the world, produces huge-selling medications including Lipitor, the cholesterol drug, the antidepressant Zoloft, the painkiller Celebrex and the blood-pressure drug Norvasc, among others.

July 24 2008

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