The brand name prescription drug industry ("Big Pharma") is one of the most profitable industries in the world, with post-R&D profits averaging 18% or more last year (compared to 4-7% for most other Fortune 500 companies.) This industry also charges consumers in America the highest prices in the world, based on whatever the market will bear, and aggressively promotes new, high-priced and highly-profitable products, some of dubious therapeutic value. They also engage in a variety of l illegal tactics to keep generic competitors and imported drugs off the market. The greed of the industry is bankrupting health insurance programs, both public and private, and contributing to the massive crisis in state and local budgets. The terrible impact on those without insurance – on seniors, on people with disabilities, and on many people with serious chronic illnesses who rely on drug-based therapies to maintain their lives and function – is well documented.

For several years now, Big Pharma and their ideological business colleagues (in the insurance industry and other sectors) have successfully prevented Congress from passing legislation creating a comprehensive drug benefit within Medicare and from passing legislation to lower drug prices for all in America. In response, many states are pursuing various strategies to lower drug costs for their residents. Big Pharma lost that fight in Michigan, and Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company with profits last year of $9.1 billion, is now moving marketing and administrative jobs out to other states, including a promise to bring some to New York, provided New York City and State give them a combination of $46 million in tax breaks and the promise of grants of at least $1.4 million.

We denounce this drug company blackmail directed at Michigan and threatened to other states. While we know that big corporations have been successful in pressuring the city and state into unproductive bidding wars in the name of "jobs," we urge Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki not to be complicit in this drug company blackmail. At a time when both the City and State are facing record level deficits, Pfizer should be asking what it can do to help, not asking for a corporate handout! There are better ways these funds can be spent on important public health programs for people who need affordable drugs.

We call on Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg and the City’s Industrial Development Agency to reject this deal with Pfizer, a company which, along with their Big Pharma buddies, charges New Yorkers unnecessarily high drug prices, and price gouges and profiteers off our society’s most medically vulnerable people.