Pfizer could lose $7 million in tax breaks

St. Louis Business Journal ^ | November 11, 2009 | Kelsey Volkmann

[Graybeard58]

St. Louis County officials are weighing whether to revoke the $7 million in tax breaks promised to Pfizer now that the drug giant is slashing 600 local jobs.

County Executive Charlie Dooley and the St. Louis County Economic Council are looking into 10-year property tax abatement and a sales tax exemption on construction materials granted to Pfizer.

"The commitment was based on 1,000 jobs being maintained out there and they are obviously not going to be doing that," said Denny Coleman, president and chief executive of the St. Louis County Economic Council. "We are reviewing our legal documents and bond documents to see what the requirements were and we will certainly exercise our rights to curtail those incentives and it may be a complete termination."

Ed Bryant, a Pfizer spokesman, said the company, the county and Monsanto, which is buying Pfizer’s Chesterfield research facility for $435 million, are in negotiations.

“We are going to cooperate fully with the county and whatever needs to be done to meet our obligation,” Bryant said. Pfizer had recently invested nearly $300 million in its Chesterfield facilities.

The state also gave Pfizer $2 million for job training in 2006.

Monsanto may be eligible for additional tax breaks for future growth in Chesterfield but those conversations are just starting, Coleman said.

New York-based Pfizer announced 19,000 job cuts companywide Monday as part of its restructuring following its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth.

The company is narrowing its 20-plus research centers to five main research sites and nine specialized sites.

Pfizer has been looking to slash costs in anticipation of losing patent protection for its blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor in 2011, opening the door for cheaper generic knockoffs and a decline in sales.

[Graybeard58]

New York-based Pfizer announced 19,000 job cuts companywide Monday

More hopey changey.

[This_far]

Maybe 0bamy will give Maxine Waters a pharma company to play with?

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Couldn’t happen to a nicer company.

Most of the 19,000 jobs being cut are former Wyeth jobs that are now “redundant” after Pfizer bought Wyeth when Bernard Pousset and his cronies sold it to Pfizer in return for huge payouts. In very Borg-like fashion, Pfizer is proceeding to strip Wyeth’s technologies and drug pipeline, assimilate some of the higher-end employees, and axe the rest - this despite the initial promises that the biotech side would be secure, since “that’s what we’re buying you for.”

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

If the communists succeed in forcing socialized medicine down our throats, this entire industry will disappear.

1 in 10,000 compounds tested by pharmaceutical companies passes FDA requirements.

Of those, 1 in 4 actually makes it to the shelf and turns a profit.

No one will invest in pharmaceuticals when the government takes their profits.

The industry will simply evaporate because, after the government tries to control it, it will become too expensive.

The really bad news is that a lot of these blockbuster drugs (like Lipitor) actually save a lot of health-care money by reducing the need for more expensive procedures, like open-heart surgery.

But the government and the propaganda machine (National Propaganda Radio, the Propaganda Broadcasting Service, ABC, MSNBC, etc.) will never explain this. They’ll claim none of it works and money is better spent elsewhere.

[Parley Baer]

” St.Louis County officials are weighing whether to revoke the $7 million in tax breaks promised to Pfizer now that the drug giant is slashing 600 local jobs”

Those dimoKKKRATS sure know how to create jobs. Just raise taxes.

[Dr. Sivana]

If the communists succeed in forcing socialized medicine down our throats, this entire industry will disappear.

Unfortunately, companies like Pfizer are going to have a hard time getting sympathy. They were the driving force behind the Kelo vs. New London eminent domain case. Oh, and they are closing down the building that caused the problem in the first place. Serves New London right.

And, like many very large companies, they get to play by a different set of rules than the smaller companies. They lose tax breaks that some of their competitors never got.

It reminds of the downtown New Haven Macy's, who agreed to stay open in exchange for a $10 MILLION incentive. They stayed open another year or two, and then closed anyway. WHo paid that $10 million? In part the small boutiques and specialty shops in direct competition with that same Macy's.

There hasn't been true free enterprise in Big Pharma for decades.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Hey, that’s why I call them corporate socialists. They are hardly representative of free enterprise and capitalism.

But there is another side of the “capitalist” story, and that’s the side of the investors, and that’s where we still have power and a democratic influence in the markets.

As long as we can voluntarily invest in one company over another, we are free to risk and possibly reap profit ourselves.

When the government takes over an industry such as pharma, that is another big hit that we as investors take.

The result?

We are “encouraged” yet again to invest in government instruments (T-bills, Bonds, Notes, etc.) and to be happy if we get 1-2% return.

[Lorianne]

Payback for Kelo.
Sweet