Modern Neoliberal Philanthropy: motivations and impact of Pfizer Pharmaceutical’s corporate social responsibility campaign

Abstract

One of Pfizer Pharmaceutical’s general corporate goals is that no person anywhere should be restricted from receiving essential and affordable medicines. From 2009 to 11 Pfizer’s internal corporate social responsibility (csr) programmes were private corporate efforts that were discretionary and limited in scope and impact. All Pfizer’s csr preferred public policy governmental positions encompassed neoliberal government requirements based on market and profit considerations, with no positions demonstrating, in detail, how universal provision of drugs for all would be provided. Currently Pfizer’s csr efforts represent a dichotomy when compared with the general corporate goal of not restricting essential and affordable medicines in order to provide medicines for all.

Notes

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2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

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24. Consumers International, Branding the Cure; Christian Aid, Behind the Mask; ‘Business with a conscience’; Givel, ‘Motivation of chemical industry social responsibility through Responsible Care’; Hirschorn, ‘Corporate social responsibility and the tobacco industry’; and Newell & Frynas’, ‘Beyond csr?.

25. Christian Aid, Behind the Mask; and G Auld, S Berstein & B Cashore, ‘The new corporate social responsibility’, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 33, 2008, pp 413–435.

26. J Robotham, ‘Companies ditch conference over tobacco firm’s presence’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 November 2005, p 9.

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28. Pfizer, Pfizer Annual Review 2011.

29. Pfizer, Doing the Right Things: 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2009. Available at www.pfizer.com/responsibility

30. Fortune, Global 500, 2009, at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2008/full_list/101_200.html; and bbc News, ‘Pfizer’s profit rise disappoints’, 3 February 2010.

31. Pfizer, 2011 Financial Report, 2011, Appendix A. Available at www.pfizer.com/files/annualreport/2011/financial/financial2011.pdf

32. United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Preliminary Proxy Statement, Schedule 14 A, Pfizer Inc, 2009. This document is listed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal US agency that oversees securities transactions and listings. The document referenced here is a required filing for all companies that publicly trade stocks including Pfizer.

33. Ibid.

34. Oxfam International, Investing for Life; US Securities and Exchange Commission, Preliminary Proxy Statement; Center for Responsive Politics, ‘Heavy hitters’, Pfizer, Inc, 2010, at http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000138; bbc News, ‘Pfizer’s Jeffrey Kindler resigns as chief executive’, 26 December 2010; Democracy Now!, ‘Wikileaks cables: Pfizer targeted Nigerian attorney general to undermine suits over fatal drug tests’, 2010; and ‘Pfizer spent 5.6M lobbying government in 4Q’, Associated Press, 22 March 2010. Available at http://www.democracynow.org/

35. Center for Responsive Politics, ‘Heavy hitters’.

36. US Securities and Exchange Commission, Preliminary Proxy Statement.

37. G Harris, ‘Pfizer pays $2.3 billion to settle marketing case’, New York Times, 3 September 2009.

38. Ibid; and C Johnson, ‘In settlement, a warning to drugmakers’, Washington Post, 2 September 2009.

39. Democracy Now!, ‘Wikileaks cables’; and J Stephens, ‘Panel faults Pfizer in ‘96 clinical trial in Nigeria’, Washington Post, 6 May 2006.

40. Pfizer, ‘Pfizer Inc: exploring our history 1951–1999’, 2009, at http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/1951_1999.jsp.

41. Pfizer, ‘Pfizer Inc: exploring our history 2000–present’.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid.

45. Pfizer, Pfizer Annual Review 2011.

46. http://www.pfizer.com/investors/financial_reports/annual_reports/2011/expanding-access.jsp

47. Pfizer, The Pfizer Foundation: A Charitable Foundation established by Pfizer Inc, 2011. Available at www.pfizerglobalhealth.com

48. www.pfizer.com/responsibility

49. W Holstein, ‘The impact of image on the bottom line’, New York Times, 9 April 2006, p 3.

50. Ibid.