BIOTECHNOLOGY FROM LAB TO PATIENT: PERSPECTIVES ON COST, RESEARCH AND PATIENT CARE

Novemberr 2001 -- In the past several months, our society has been engaged in a great debate on patient access to innovative prescription drugs. Pfizer strongly supports expanded access and is conducting a media briefing on medical issues by a host of experts discussing patient access to medicines, biotechnology in New England, the future of drug development and the global health care economy.

Two thirds of America's elderly have drug coverage. One third does not. Most of those people are financially strapped. They deserve help.

For its part, this year Pfizer will give away more than $215 million in medicines (wholesale price) to 850,000 patients nationwide, through patient assistance programs.

But access is one side of a complex issue. The other side is innovation. Pfizer firmly believes that they can have both access and innovation. But if access is achieved through price controls that slash profitability for the very risky task of drug discovery innovation will suffer.

The vast majority of new drugs being discovered today are in places like private laboratories in the U.S. Pfizer alone has 120 late and near-term new medicines in its drug pipeline. With the mapping of the genome, laboratories are on the verge of extraordinary new advances. These advances can be made if there is the incentive to move forward.

In New England, last year, Pfizer donated over $2.4 million medicines to nearly 9,000 needy patients. And over the past four years, they have kept price increases for our medicines at or below the rate of inflation and introduced every new medicine discovered at prices below the prevailing treatment.