Even Karl Marx, who said something to the effect that capitalism treats workers (i.e. people) like commodities, to be bought and sold as the market dictates, might have winced at drug-kingpin Pfizer’s decision to close its Brooklyn plant, costing 600 real humans their jobs. The nation’s biggest drug company has been losing money of late is worried that when its patent on Viagra and other drugs run out, it will lose $14 billion in sales to generic manufacturers. That 600 people will be out of work, out of health insurance, out of rent money, out of college tuition money, et cetera, et cetera, et-fucking-cetera, doesn’t seem to bother CEO Jeffrey Kindler.
“There are no sacred cows,” said the big-hearted Pfizer boss.
Is Pfizer bleeding dough? No way. Here’s Chairman Kindler from the Pfizer website:
“In the face of many challenges in 2006, we substantially achieved a number of financial targets that we set early in the year. We took decisive action and delivered solid performance despite challenges, including the significant revenue impact due to the loss of exclusivity of Zithromax and Zoloft in the U.S. We achieved revenue growth of 2 percent for the year. We delivered adjusted diluted EPS(1) of $2.06, in line with our upwardly revised guidance.”
Assholes.