Pharmaceutical Industry Opposition to Reimportation 'Financial Suicide,' Pfizer's Rost Says

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 04 May 2005 - 9:00 PDT

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Pharmaceutical companies are being led by "dinosaurs who are committing financial suicide" by opposing US residents' reimportation of lower-cost drugs from abroad, Peter Rost, a vice president of marketing at... Pfizer, said in a speech at the Minnesota Senior Federation Monday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Rost is an advocate of reimportation who has testified before Congress twice in recent months in favor of legalizing the practice. In his speech, Rost said, "Getting drugs to people who need them is about right and wrong. When millions of uninsured older or poor Americans get sick because they can't afford their medications, that is morally wrong." He noted that most U.S. residents pay prices for medications similar to prices paid in Europe because U.S. insurers negotiate bulk discounts, but uninsured people in the United States "pay the full price -- twice what you'd pay in Europe." Rost added, "Everybody negotiates bulk prices for bulk deliveries, everybody but the United States." He also said that pharmaceutical companies could increase profits by lowering prices and boosting sales to low-income U.S. residents. Rost said he once doubled sales in Nordic countries for a pharmaceutical company he previously worked for after he lowered prescription drug prices. The Star Tribune notes that Pfizer officials say the company "disagrees strongly with Rost's views" (Wolfe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/3).

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