News @ a glance

• Published in: Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ) 2004-11, Vol.171 (10), p.1162-1163
• Main Author: Sibbald, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0820-3946; 1488-2329
• DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.1041652

Discount drugs: Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. is offering discounts on prescription drugs to 43 million uninsured Americans, a move analysts said could be aimed at countering growing pressure for US cost controls. Under the "Pfizer Pfriends" program, uninsured families making less than $45 000 a year will be eligible for average savings of 37%, and uninsured, higher income families could get average savings of 15%. However, analysts said the move may be in the company's best interest. Brandon Carl, a securities analyst for North Carolina-based BB&T Asset Management Inc., which owns 1.8 million shares of Pfizer, said the move appears to be an effort to take "a proactive stance ahead of some of the major changes that could take place in coming years." He pointed to growing pressure for drug price controls and reimportation of lower-priced drugs from Canada and elsewhere. "They want to position themselves so that they're not trying to stand in the way of an obvious problem with the inflation of drug prices," Carl said. The average price of the top 30 brand-name drugs used by senior citizens in the US rose 22% over the past 3 years, according to a study by the advocacy group Families USA. Dr. Steven Morgan, a health economist at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia, said the Pfizer program fails to get to the heart of the problem, the need for "demand-style systems or government regulations that ensure everyone pays the same price."