Faith-Based Investors Recommend Reforms for Pharmaceutical Lobby
PhRMA Hampered by Lack of Transparency and Accountability

WASHINGTON, DC and NEW YORK, NY///June 3, 2004 ///Religious and other concerned shareholders who seek improved access to health care released a series of recommended reforms to the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) today. PhRMA is the voice of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), and other large drug companies in Washington, D.C.

Margaret Weber, the Co-Chair of the Access to Health Care Working Group at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), explained, "We believe that PhRMA is hampered by a lack of transparency and accountability to its membership and, ultimately, to patients and shareholders. Accordingly, we are recommending a series of actions which will strengthen PhRMA. These steps will not end the public outcry over access to prescription drugs in the United States or the crisis in medicines in the developing world. However, each one will have a tangible, immediate benefit for shareholders and patients in the form of increased information and increased access to medicines."

In letters to PhRMA Chairman-elect William Weldon and current Chairman Miles White, who are the heads of Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, respectively, ICCR members laid out a four-pronged strategy to reform PhRMA:

- Enhance PhRMA's transparency by public disclosing dues and expenditures,

- Make PhRMA effective for patients by creating an independent, third-party organization to implement pharmaceutical company patient assistance programs,

- Become a constructive voice in Washington by ending the use of trade agreements and trade sanctions to prevent access to generic HIV/AIDS medicines in the developing world, and

- Create an atmosphere of engagement through regular meetings with shareholders, faith-based organizations, senior citizens, consumer advocates, and others.

The full text of the letter is available here. ICCR members have been engaged in dialogue with the pharmaceutical industry for over ten years and in 2004 presented shareholder resolutions before Abbott Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY), Merck, and Pfizer.

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, hospital corporations, economic development funds and publishing companies. 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 Rosan, ICCR Program Director for Public Health, at 212-870-2317 or drosan@iccr.org.