ICCR Members React to Pfizer Announcement

Faith-Based Investors Respond to Pfizer Announcement of Increased Drug Discounts For The Uninsured.

NEW YORK, NY///July 8, 2004 ///Margaret Weber, Coordinator of Corporate Social Responsibility for the Dominican Sisters of Adrian Michigan and the Chair of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility's Access to Health Care Working Group, made the following statement today in response to Pfizer's announcement of increased drug discounts for uninsured and underinsured Americans:

"Introduction of the Pfizer Pfriends program, and increasing the eligibility guidelines to 200% of poverty level for the existing programs, are significant responses by Pfizer to the reality of 43 million uninsured Americans. These steps are a recognition of the depth of the problem, and should serve to put access to health care at the top of the agenda for the pharmaceutical sector.

"For many patients, this new announcement will have a real and lasting impact on their lives. It comes after years of in-depth discussion with ICCR members and other stakeholders. And for Pfizer's competitors, it represents a raising of the bar.

"While consumers and shareholders praise today's announcements, we must also be mindful of the limits of such programs. The pharmaceutical industry will continue to face unprecedented demands for transparency, price restraint, and stakeholder engagement going forward. And there is the very real threat that even the significant discounts offered by this program will have a diminished impact because of increasing, and accelerating, price increases by Pfizer and its peers.

"As religious investors, we also call on Pfizer and its competitors to come together to further increase access to affordable drugs by coordinating their patient assistance programs so patients will have a single, easy to use program for all medicines - instead of a single, easy to use program for Pfizers' medicines alone.

"Over the next year, shareholders and patients - including ICCR members - will be looking to see how the company promotes these expansions and if growth of these programs is part of the company's strategy going forward.