Religious Investors Open Campaign to Press Drug Companies to Disclose Political Spending
NEW YORK, NY///December 9, 2004 /// Faith-based shareholders and their allies announced today a campaign to press six major U.S. pharmaceutical companies to disclose and account for political contributions that they make with corporate funds. Drug companies are among the country's top political givers, donating almost $9 million in soft money in the 2002 election cycle.
Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an association of 275 faith-based institutional investors with $110 billion in combined assets under investment, filed shareholder resolutions calling for political transparency and accountability at Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Wyeth (NYSE: WYE).
Margaret Weber of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, and the Co-Chair of ICCR's Access to Health Care Working Group, said: "We believe companies should use their resources to win in the marketplace through innovative medicines and services to patients. They should not use those resources to curry political favor or to make political contributions that reach groups or candidates with positions that are at cross purposes with the company's policies and practices."
The resolutions, modeled after one drafted by the Washington-based Center for Political Accountability, seek semi-annual disclosure by companies of their soft money political contributions and contribution policies, an explanation of the business rationale of their donations, and company identification of executives involved in the contribution decisions.
Caroline Williams, Chief Financial Officer of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the primary filer of the resolution at Merck, explained, "We are becoming increasingly concerned that the money companies spend to influence legislation today will have a negative impact on long term shareholder value. Campaign finance reform has actually made the use of money for political influence more diffuse, more indirect, and so more difficult to monitor. In response to a similar resolution in 2004, Pfizer now discloses its political contributions down to the state level. They do not seem to have found compliance to be costly or administratively burdensome."
Although the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act enacted in 2002 prohibits corporate contributions to political parties at the federal level, companies are still allowed to give to independent political committees, known as 527s, and in many state and local races. Most importantly, companies are not required to disclose those unlimited contributions that are made with corporate funds.
Consumer advocates have criticized the major drug companies and their trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America, for their lobbying and lavish support of political candidates and related entities.
ICCR members and associate members filing the resolution include: Camilla Madden Charitable Trust; Catholic Healthcare West; Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston; Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan; Dominican Sisters of Hope; Dominican Sisters of Oxford, MI; Mercy Investment Program; Nathan Cummings Foundation; Progressive Investment Management; Service Employees International Union Master Trust; Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ; Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit; and Trillium Asset Management.
They are joined by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which is co-filing the resolution at Eli Lilly and Merck. NYSCRF is the second largest public employee pension fund in the U.S.
ABOUT ICCR
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is an association of 275 faith-based institutional investors, including national denominations, religious communities, pension funds, endowments, and hospital corporations. ICCR and its members press companies to be socially and environmentally responsible. Each year ICCR-member religious institutional investors sponsor over 100 shareholder resolutions on major social and environmental issues. The combined portfolio value of ICCR's member organizations is estimated to be $110 billion.
CONTACT: Daniel E. Rosan, Program Director for Public Health
212-870-2317, drosan@ iccr.org