POSTED MARCH 20

[A STATEMENT POSTED BY SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS ON MARCH 19 DURING HIS CAMPAIGN FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATION. TO SEE OTHER FACTS ABOUT PFIZER AND ITS EFFORTS TO WIN A CORPORATE TAX INVERSION, USE Microsoft Command f IN THIS SEARCHER.]

“Pfizer is a giant pharmaceutical company based in New York City that has a history of overcharging Americans for prescription drugs. It's in the process of trying to merge with another company located in Ireland.

“If the merger is successful, Pfizer would technically become a foreign company, meaning it could dodge around $35 BILLION in corporate taxes here in America.

“Enough is enough. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies cannot be allowed to ‘evade taxes and rip off American patients who already pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
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”What Pfizer is trying to do is known as a ‘corporate inversion.’ In this case, Pfizer, an American company, is merging with a company based abroad. The result of the merger is a company with an address in another country – even though the majority of shareholders are still based in America.

“Pfizer apparently doesn't want to pay the $35 billion in taxes it would owe in America. I don't think that's right.

”No matter what, you can bet that Pfizer would continue to overcharge Americans for prescription drugs, too. The pharmaceutical company has hiked the prices of seven of its top selling drugs by an average of 39 percent.

”Pfizer also charges 12 times as much in the U.S. under Medicare for these drugs as it charges in Ireland, where it’s claiming a new address for tax purposes.

“All of this is the result of years of weakened tax laws, an abdication of responsibility by American companies to their country, and a corrupt political system that allows it to happen.”

CNBC (TV) SAYS PFIZER WILL DROP ATTEMPTED TAX INVERSION

 “Pfizer and Allergan [maker of Botox] will mutually terminate their merger early Wednesday morning ET, sources told CNBC, after changes in U.S. tax regulations dealt a death blow to the $160 billion deal.

“Pfizer will pay Allergan a $400 million break fee as per the merger agreement, the sources said.”

NEW RULES MAY HALT PFIZER TAX INVERSION

“NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc's $160 billion agreement to acquire Botox maker Allergan Plc was on the brink of being abandoned on Tuesday, after the U.S. Treasury issued new rules on how tax ‘inversion’ deals can be structured.

“Allergan's shares were hit considerably hard on Tuesday, showing how the rules that were issued on Monday targeted the biggest inversion attempted to date. The federal government has grappled with a wave of recent inversions by U.S. companies seeking to slash their tax bills by redomiciling overseas in merger deals.

“Pfizer is now leaning towards abandoning the deal with Allergan, though no final decision has yet been made, a source familiar with the situation said. Were the deal to be tweaked, Pfizer is concerned U.S. President Barack Obama's administration could change the rules again to thwart a deal, according to the source.

“Pfizer shares ended up 2 percent on hopes the company would walk away or renegotiate the deal in its favor. Allergan shares closed down 14.8 percent to their lowest level since October 2014.

“Obama on Tuesday called global tax avoidance a ‘huge problem’ and urged Congress to take action to stop U.S. companies from tax-avoiding corporate ‘inversions’, which lower companies tax bills by redomiciling overseas.

" ‘While the Treasury Department's actions will make it more difficult... to exploit this particular corporate inversions loophole, only Congress can close it for good,’ Obama said.

“Several U.S. presidential candidates, including Republican Donald Trump and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, have seized on the issue in their campaigns.

" ‘We have so many companies leaving, it is disgraceful,’ Trump told reporters as he greeted voters in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. Clinton and Sanders both expressed support for Treasury's plan.

“Besides Pfizer-Allergan, other pending inversion deals that have not yet closed include the proposed $16.5 billion merger of Johnson Controls Inc with Ireland-based Tyco International Plc, Waste Connections Inc's $2.67 billion deal with Canada's Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd , and IHS Inc's $13 billion acquisition of London-based Markit Ltd.