Pfizer launches frontal attack against well-being of American seniors by restriction on sales to Canadian Internet Pharmacies. Prompts call for action, investigations by Seniors Web Site Publisher
Pfizer cuts supplies of its products to Canadian Internet pharmacies in move to limit supplies to American seniors, prompts call for action, investigations
(PRWEB) February 18, 2004
Pfizer has told Canadian pharmacies selling to American seniors that they will no longer be able to purchase from Pfizer, TodaysSeniorsNetwork. com, a leading Internet site for seniors, has learned. The action has prompted call from TodaysSeniorsNetwork. com Publisher Daniel Hines for quick retaliatory action and investigation of Pfizer's actions.
The action by Pfizer is the most drastic taken to this point by a pharmaceutical manufacturer as part of the latest effort to control the market and set prices in the United States for the prescriptions that U. S. seniors use.
In a letter signed by Isabelle M Girard, legal counsel for Pfizer Canada, the company cited that its conditions for sale of its products required that companies not sell outside of Canada or sell the Pfizer products to anyone or company that it knows or suspects of such sales.
America's Seniors at www. TodaysSeniorsNetwork. com has launched an extensive series of contacts with policy makers and other groups that support a role for Canadian prescriptions as an alternative to high-priced drugs in the U. S.
"Many states have threatened the possibility of legal action in the past against a number of the pharmaceutical companies," explains Daniel Hines, publisher of TodaysSeniorsNetwork. com. "This includes, but it not limited to Illinois, with a 'black listing' of companies that take such action; Minnesota and Iowa, with attorneys general investigations of possible anti-trust action, and a number of other localities that have already implemented the purchase of prescription drugs from Canada."
Hines noted that the Pfizer action follows a series of failed actions by the large pharmaceutical manufactuerers and their allies to falsely portray Canadian imports as 'unsafe', 'counterfeit', and as being imported from Third-World countries.
"More significantly, it comes on the heels of the passage of the flawed Medicare Bill, which protects the positions of the large pharmaceutical companies by outlawing price controls, and that of pharmacy benefit plan managers--including AARP--that will gain the most from the Bill, at the expense of needy seniors" Hines continues. "The timing is even more evidence of the arrogance of the large pharmaceutical companies and their complete lack of responsiveness and sensitivity to the health care needs of seniors."
The action also comes in the face of a 'summit meeting' convened by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Canadian imports to be held in Washington, DC at the end of February.
The Illinois Governor has been a leader in the call for the use of Canadian prescription drugs.
Also, several in Congress have indicated their support, including Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) who has proposed legislation calling for the FDA to approve the import of Canadian prescriptions in this country.
Ironically, the National Governors' Association, which is meeting in Washington at the same time at Governor Blagojevich's summit, has not even included the subject of Canadian prescriptions from Internet pharmacies on its agenda.
Even before the Pfizer move, the Alliance for Retired Americans appealed for the Governors to redraw their agenda to discuss the issue.
Hines said that he anticipates a series of actions by different agencies in the next few weeks.
"If Pfizer is able to succeed in this attack upon seniors, others will follow suit," Hines says. "The losers will be the seniors of this country.
"It is time for dramatic steps to be taken to rein in the greed of Pfizer and others."
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