Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, if it wants to remain true to its corporate social responsibility, must offer to all Filipinos its 50-percent “Sulit” discount card instead of limiting it to a few thousand Filipinos who signed up to such privilege. If it does not, then Pfizer’s discount-card scheme, possibly aimed at appeasing government officials on a pricing structure that deprives many ailing Filipinos the chance of being cured, should be labeled for what it really is: cheap gimmickry bordering on the ludicrous.

While Pfizer apparently wants to make it appear that it is helping the poor through its Sulit cards, it is, in fact, antipoor because the cards are usually handed out in expensive hospitals that are visited by medical representatives. These are the very same med reps that offer Pfizer promotional products with added bonuses like out-of-the-country seminars. Ask your doctor; no doubt, he has heard about this, too. And if he works in an expensive hospital, he can tell you a lot more, if he decides to be honest about it. So, because Mang Juan, with his hands gnarled from overwork, and countless other poor Filipinos can never hope to be treated in an expensive hospital, they can never hope to ever possess a Sulit 50-percent discount card for Pfizer products.

This cheap gimmickry should be exposed for what it is. Especially as it comes at a time when the people have gotten wind of the high-priced Pfizer products—products that have exactly the same ingredients and which cost much, much less in India and other countries. Indeed, it’s high time the government does something to dismantle Pfizer’s high-pricing structure.

Earlier, the Philippine International Trading Corp. got embroiled in a controversy with Pfizer for its plan to import Norvasc and other Pfizer drugs from India, where the prices of these products are at least a sixth of Philippine prices. It was this controversy that prompted Pfizer to come out with the Sulit-card ploy. We understand that Pfizer has embarked on an aggressive advertising campaign to promote its Sulit-card scheme for Norvasc, together with a supposed patient-care program. The ad, for all its bluster, raises alarming issues which we hope the Pfizer people would be conscientious enough to address.

Here’s the first point, and definitely an interesting one. In one of its ads, Pfizer has 60-year-old Mrs. Norma Lipata, a public-school teacher, praising the multinational giant for her 50-percent discount privilege. The question is, did Pfizer tell Mrs. Lipata that she forfeits her senior-citizen discount when she uses her Pfizer card? I wonder if Mrs. Lipata would still be smiling the same way she does in the Pfizer ad if she knew about this. The forfeiture of the senior-citizen discount is not mentioned in the ad. Friends tell us that the forfeiture of this and other discounts are written in very, very fine print in the packet that contains the Pfizer card. It specifically says “the CARD shall not be used with any other discount privileges, e.g., Senior Citizen Card.”

Now, why has Pfizer taken that senior-citizen discount away? Maybe the multinational giant does not know how sacred the senior-citizen discount is to the Mrs. Lipatas of this country? True, that discount is just 10 percent to 30 percent off the price of medicines. But that is a discount that senior citizens have fought long and hard for.

Also, the Pfizer ad enumerates the conveniences of the card gimmick. But maybe it should put the caveat—if not in bold print, at least not in very, very fine print—that using the card takes the senior-citizen discount privilege away, in the same way cigarette ads put in the surgeon-general’s warning that “smoking can cause cancer” in all its advertisements. Pfizer should also tell the public that anyone who gets that card also gets into Pfizer’s marketing data bank. And everyone, of course, knows how valuable the database is for future marketing efforts.

The ad does not say that, but it is in very, very small print of the terms and conditions in the use of the card gimmick. The patient has to give “consent to receive mail, calls and/or text message from Pfizer.” Does that not betray the motive behind the discount-card gimmick? Friends joke that this patient-care program is really meant to take care of the giant’s data-banking needs. This quid pro quo does not do good to Pfizer’s corporate social responsibility. And we wonder why Pfizer is not being candid about it.

We are not accusing Pfizer of misleading the public, especially senior citizens, with that card gimmick. We are merely saying there is enough room for candor and honesty in that ad campaign. In the end, what the Filipinos need is not Pfizer’s “generous” discount ploy. We need cheaper medicines that we can buy without terms and conditions. And without surrendering our rights to other discounts. Or without divulging personal information to a business interest’s marketing data bank.

If Pfizer does intend to help its Filipino market, why doesn’t this American giant simply cut the price of its expensive drugs by half? Then the Norma Lipatas of this country could genuinely smile with gratitude. Especially since the pharma giant apparently wants to position itself as a generous multinational. This is typical of colonial masters who want to calm a raging sentiment in a colonial outpost. It apparently wants Filipinos to wallow in a debt of gratitude for the card-gimmick discounts.

But if Mrs. Lipata has carefully read what privileges and privacy she has to give up just to enjoy a small dose of American generosity, we doubt if Mrs. Lipata would still display that winsome smile. Which is why, sometimes it boggles the mind why the ad seeks to show that there is too much to expect from an American pharma giant, when the truth of the matter is that India’s ailing population is treated to cheap medicines. India, with its vaunted economic strength, gets to enjoy cheaper drugs from Pfizer, while the Philippines, which is nowhere near that of India, has to suffer.

The ad should be considered a watershed in Pfizer’s cheap gimmickry. What does it think of the ailing Filipinos who are deprived of their access to Pfizer drugs simply because they are beyond reach? And to think that given the largesse that Pfizer has raised from millions of ailing Filipinos, it might want to finally give them a breathing room. We dare it then to junk the card gimmick and just entitle all sick Filipinos to 50-percent off its costly drugs.

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