Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Medicines Strategy: Discussion

Mr. Robbie Lawlor:

Marketing is not the only issue. We know that pharmaceutical companies spend vast amounts of money on share buybacks. A report entitled The People's Prescription shows that in the past ten years, Pfizer spent $139 billion on share buybacks and dividends compared with $82 billion on research and development, and that is not including marketing.