Donate or Else, drug company told staff

[donsu]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/05/1062549020461.html

-snip-

The four, who asked not to be named, said they were told to donate the maximum - $US1000 ($1500) in their own name and $US1000 in their spouse's - and if they failed to do so, their names would be forwarded to the company's then chief executive, Charles Heimbold.

-snip-

Elsewhere in the drug industry, the election message was much the same. Some companies circulated a videotape of Vice President Al Gore railing against the high price of prescription drugs, resulting in a flood of contributions for Bush and other Republicans.

Those donations may soon pay off for the pharmaceutical business. Four years ago, a Democrat was in the White House and the industry was fighting a prescription drug proposal that it said would have led to price controls. When Mr Bush won the election, the drug makers celebrated.

-snip-

The industry had a single goal: to defeat any legislation that would let Medicare negotiate big discounts on the price of drugs for its 40 million beneficiaries.
-snip-
-----------------------------

doing business the american way

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. As surprising as this is, coming from a Murdoch paper....

...they fail to mention the numerous ties between the pharmaceutical industry and the Bush Criminal Empire, including half of Junior's cabinet. Hence, the true motives behind keeping these financial rapists' profit margins insanely high.

[Skittles]

2. I wonder how many of these financial rapists

are in church every Sunday.

[blm]

3. This deserves a big bump.

They are thugs. Shakedown artists. Plain and simple.

[Sophree]

4. The Corporate Mafia

Unfreakinbelievable. :grr:

[lumpy]

5. It's believable

This is nothing new, suck up and pay the price if you wish to advance.

[oldcoot]

6. How do we fight this?

I know that this behavior is illegal. Unfortunately, I doubt you could get Ashcroft to investigate Bristol-Myers Squibb. So how do we fight this?