Sanders Slams Merger of Drug Giants Pfizer and Allergan as Disaster for America
Source: AlterNet
By Steven Rosenfeld
Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has slammed the just-announced corporate merger of giant drug makers Pfizer and Allergan, urging the Obama administration to use its authority to block a deal that would raise prices for the public while evading billions in federal taxes.
“The Pfizer-Allergan merger would be a disaster for American consumers who already pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sanders said, in a statement issued by his U.S. Senate office. It also would "allow another major American corporation to hide its profits overseas.”
The deal, announced Monday, would enable the two companies, whose combined market value would be $330 billion, to evade new Treasury Department rules designed to stop companies from renouncing their American citizenship, thereby ending their federal tax obligations, by moving their corporate headquarters offshore.
In this case, the U.S.-based Pfizer, whose history of making major breakthrough drugs dates back to the Civil War, would operate under the supervision of the slightly smaller Allergan, based in Ireland.
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Read more: http://www.alternet.org/economy/sanders-slams-merger-drug-giants-pfizer-and-allergan-disaster-america
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