[Random-bits] Hank McKinnell asks for internal review of Pfizer's Philippines lawsuit

[James Love]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/hank-mckinnell-asks-for-
i_b_20071.html

April 29, 2006
Hank McKinnell asks for internal review of Pfizer's Philippines lawsuit
James Love

Last week Pfizer CEO Hank McKinnell was the object of a lot of
attention. The AFL-CIO rented an airplane to fly a banner saying
"Give it back Hank," to protest his pay hike and $83 million pension,
despite a 46 percent decline in the Pfizer share price under his
leadership. Earlier the New York Times and other publications ran a
number of stories explaining how McKinnell has effectively
manipulated third parties who should be looking out for shareholders,
rather than him.

My colleague Judit Rius began collecting signatures to ask Stanford
to consider kicking McKinnell off an advisory board over his bullying
of Philippine drug regulators. But my favorite story of the week
involves an encounter between Hank McKinnell and Dan Murphy, a
medical student at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dan Murphy was attending the tapping of the "the End of AIDS: A CNN
Global Summit with President Clinton." Hank McKinnell was there to
say how much Pfizer is doing to help the poor. But Murphy had been
following Pfizer's ligitation in the Philippines -- a case where
Pfizer has tried to intimidate government officials by suing them in
their personal capacity, so they won't take very modest measures to
obtain cheaper sources of Pfizer medicines.

Murphy buttonholed McKinnell at the event. This is Murphy's account:
-------
I cornered Hank post filming and we had a nice argument. I told him
that I was a med student that I was upset about the lawsuit against
the Philippines, and that he was going to be facing a lot more angry
students if they didn't end it. He said it wasn't about generics, it
was about protecting patents and we spent most of our discussion
arguing about this. Towards the end of the discussion he started
saying that it didn't matter, because he had ordred a review of the
matter and would be ending it if it wasn't about "legitimate
protection of patented medicines". Eventually his people dragged him
away.
-----------
I like this story because at that moment, McKinnell had to deal with
someone who really did care about the poor, and who had the guts and
the knowledge to engage him personally. If more people did this,
companies like Pfizer would probably behave better.

But there is also more. By talking to McKinnell personally, and
getting him to talk about the case, Hank is now more accountable. He
knows about the Philippines litigation, he is reviewing it himself,
and now everyone knows that, and so whatever happens, we know it is
Hank's call.

A word of advice to Hank. Drop the suit. Now.

More on Pfizer v. Philippines here:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/c/phil/


---------------------------------
James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton