First question, most popular question asked, how does the weak global economy hurt Pfizer’s profitability?
Well, let me start by saying the obvious which is that we’re certainly not immune to the global economic downturn. And to the extent that the pharmaceutical industry may have in the past been highly recession resistant there have clearly been a lot of changes in recent years that have changed that to some extent, certainly higher copays on the part of individuals has an impact. As we sit there today we have not yet seen a really meaningful reduction in prescription volume but I want to emphasize it’s early in the year. But as of this time we haven’t seen that yet. And we were very careful to factor the economic slowdown into our 2009 financial guidance and took that into account in the guidance that we put out.
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Well, let me start by saying the obvious which is that we’re certainly not immune to the global economic downturn. And to the extent that the pharmaceutical industry may have in the past been highly recession resistant there have clearly been a lot of changes in recent years that have changed that to some extent, certainly higher copays on the part of individuals has an impact. As we sit there today we have not yet seen a really meaningful reduction in prescription volume but I want to emphasize it’s early in the year. But as of this time we haven’t seen that yet. And we were very careful to factor the economic slowdown into our 2009 financial guidance and took that into account in the guidance that we put out.
Read the complete transcript
Listen to the conference call
