I'm aware that pharmaceutical companies distribute small quantities of drugs for PR purposes (did I mention that my second ex-wife is a marketing executive for a major pharmaceutical company?). But in those two links I couldn't find any hard information to put the quantity into context, to see if it's more than a symbolic gesture.

I'm mildly skeptical of the Pfizer material, because of the way they trumpet the quantities with ambiguous marketing-ese stats: "...has helped 2 million patients with 6 million prescriptions..." (over how long a period? only 3 doses per patient? Sounds more like the practice of giving free samples to doctors.); or "...has donated $350 million..." (again, out of context--over what period, and what percentage against revenues over the same period? Pfizer is an old company). The page lists only two medicines as part of the program--out of how many drugs in their product line? Maybe it's all genuine, but the use of marketeering obfuscation makes me suspicious.

Merck only claims to give away drugs domestically in the US; Bowser's post started us off on the topic of the high cost of drugs relative to income in other countries.

Nice try, but pharmaceutical companies have never had a reputation for generosity.

--Robert