PILMA released the following statement rejecting the ‘profit-over-patients’ philosophy of hedge-fund, acquisition-only creations and joins the research-based biopharmaceutical industry and others in condemning their practices.
Click here to download the statement.
PILMA stands with labor and industry trustees to condemn ‘profits-over-patients’ practices of hedge-fund, acquisition-only companies.
For over ten years, the Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association has united the biopharmaceutical industry and union workers with the dual goals of fostering innovation of life-saving cures and securing high-quality union construction jobs. As the partnership has grown over the years, so has its impact. Labor and industry recognize the strength in their partnership: a strong industry naturally leads to good jobs and a vibrant economy.
The pharmaceutical industry members of PILMA recognize that the most highly skilled workers are needed to construct and maintain the highest quality research and manufacturing facilities. Following each new drug trial, research facilities are reengineered to meet the exacting requirements of each new development — entire systems must be changed, surfaces must be sterilized, and facilities are redesigned and retrofitted with specialized equipment. In many instances entire manufacturing processes must be redeveloped. This requires highly skilled reliable labor that the industry can depend on to do the job right.
At the same time, PILMA addresses critical issues pertaining to access to life-sustaining medicines, the research for new cures, and the biopharmaceutical ecosphere that is required to develop and produce new medicines. Innovation in biopharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing puts the best trained, most highly skilled, safest workers in the world on the jobsite.
Recent developments where hedge fund operators have pursued predatory pricing practices while leveraging the value of these life-saving medicines have created great concern among patients and advocates for affordable medicines. PILMA recognizes the great disparity between the business practices and corporate cultures of these businesses and the research-based biopharmaceutical companies that belong to PILMA, that utilize union construction workers to fulfill their capital construction needs, and meet the promise of research and discovery through their work.
PILMA rejects the ‘profit-over-patients’ philosophy of these hedge-fund, acquisition-only creations and joins the research-based biopharmaceutical industry and others in condemning their practices.
Together, with America’s biopharmaceutical industry, the men and women of the trade union effort will continue to show value on display, every day while building and maintaining research and manufacturing facilities, providing needed high-skilled jobs, and helping in the drive to find cures to disease.
