Pfizer Pharmaceutics threatens to stop shipping drugs

[FlaGranny]

to Canadian pharmacies if they sell to US customers at a discount. Saw this on CNN crawler.

The following is taken from their web site.

"Second-quarter revenues grew 37 percent to $9.993 billion, compared to the same period in the prior year."

More
http://www.pfizer.com/are/investors_releases/mn_2003_0725.cfm

Would anyone like to join me in telling them how we feel?
Pfizer Inc
235 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
USA
Phone
1-212-733-2323

I could not find an e-mail address to corporate headquarters.

Gotta go now, getting a big storm.

[hang a left]

1. i think this needs a

kick

[Clete]

2. Damn.

I just was getting an account set up with a Canadian company for drugs for my husband.

I don't know anymore. I guess it's time to put him out on an ice floe.

[FlaGranny]

3. Ask his doctor to not prescribe

Pfizer drugs unless absolutely necessary. That's what I intend to do. I let Pfizer know about it too. If they get away with that, the rest will follow suit.

[SeattleDem]

4. yesterday's NY Times had full piece

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/business/07DRUG.html

"Just days after the House of Representatives voted to legalize the import of cheap prescription drugs from Canada, Pfizer has moved to squelch the nascent trade at its source.

The company confirmed yesterday that it had sent letters to 50 Canadian pharmacies that it believes are exporting to the United States, telling them that they would have to begin ordering their drugs directly from Pfizer, rather than from wholesalers. If Pfizer decides that the pharmacies are ordering more drugs than they need to meet Canadian demand, it will cut off or curtail shipments to them, the company said....

snip

Drug companies have sophisticated means of controlling imports. Data-tracking companies keep close tabs on doctors' prescriptions, so companies are keenly aware of actual local demand in much of the industrialized world. The companies also closely track buying trends. When drug orders at a particular pharmacy spike in the absence of a similar jump in nearby doctors' prescriptions, executives investigate."

It's sickening that they will force Canadian pharmacies to buy their drugs directly from the manufacturer rather than through wholesalers and that they will limit what they sell to them. Not very "free market" of them, is it? But I guess the free market is only for companies that aren't connected to the Administration.