 |
||||||
| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
Contact Us
|
 RSS
|
|||||
|
|
| |
|||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
ANALYSIS
March 2, 2009
Sagging Index no longer reflects what’s going on in the market, some say, Replacements? Google it, to start.
March 2, 2009
Downward price spiral will actually boost the cost of capital for most companies. CFOS, take note.
March 2, 2009
The latest bailout at AIG could be a preview of how the president will deal with Wall Street.
March 2, 2009
No corporate defaults. Big debt offerings. Percolating CP issuance. Things may be looking up in the capital markets.
|
|
|
|
October 5, 2007 1:58 PM ET
The AFL-CIO is concerned that corporate boards of directors that include members from pharmaceutical and health insurance companies may have massive conflicts of interests, and wants boards to change their policies. In a letter sent Thursday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the union cried foul over 21 Fortune 500 companies it says have overly close ties to health-care companies. “Each of these 21 non-health care companies has significant health care costs for its employees, retirees and dependents,” said Dan Pedrotty, director of the union’s office of investment. “Yet each company has multiple directors in key leadership positions affecting company health care policies who are also directors or officers of pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.” One example cited by the union’s report is General Motors, which currently has two board members from health-care companies: Percy Barnevik, retired CEO of AstraZeneca, and Karen Katen, chairman of the Pfizer Foundation. In addition, GM board member George Fisher serves as lead director at Eli Lilly. The AFL-CIO alleges that the automaker kept an expensive heartburn and ulcer drug, Nexium, on its employee health plan’s formulary, while other companies, including Chrysler and Ford, have substituted cheaper, generic versions of the drug. AstraZeneca makes Nexium, and the belief is that Mr. Barnevik’s presence on the board may have quashed attempts to substitute generic drugs on the GM formulary. GM and the United Auto Workers recently reached a contract agreement, a large part of which dealt with the company’s health-care plan. The two battled over the formulary issue, said a source close to the situation. The deal came after a brief strike. According to a GM spokeswoman, the company’s formulary currently includes both Nexium and omeprazole, the generic drug on which Nexium is based. “The board did not have any influence over any of the decisions that our pharmacy benefit manager makes regarding [the drug],” according to a GM statement. Both GM and the auto union use an outside consultant to review drug classes, the automaker said. Mr. Pedrotty still has problems with the perceived conflicts over GM board members’ personal holdings in pharma and insurance companies, as well as the fact that the costly Nexium is still considered a “preferred drug” by GM. “Why have it on the formulary at all?” he said. Nexium has received harsh criticism for being directly marketed to doctors, as well as for being little more than a repackaged version of a similar, yet cheaper, AstraZeneca drug, according to a 2004 article in The New Yorker. AstraZeneca faced class-action lawsuits in three states over how it marketed the drug, with allegations that the pharma company tried to push more doctors into using it after the patent for the much cheaper generic version expired. Other companies have come under scrutiny—mostly from unions and shareholder groups—for perceived conflicts of interest. Verizon shares one of its directors, CEO Ivan Seidenberg, with Wyeth. Verizon has been a major AFL-CIO target for reform to its executive compensation policies. In addition, the AFL-CIO letter made an argument for expanded, and possibly universal, health care, which is bound to be one of the hottest domestic issues in the 2008 presidential election. The letter cited principles created by the National Coalition on Health Care, whose members include 75 large companies, institutional investors and labor unions. Those principles are estimated to save employers providing health care coverage about $595 billion to $848 billion in the first ten years of implementation. Last month, Mr. Pedrotty told Financial Week that the union would make universal health-care coverage one of its top issues during the 2008 corporate proxy season. The union plans to file proposals urging more expansive employee health care as well as statements publicly supporting universal coverage by 2009.
|
|
|
|
Latest News
• Reversal? Stanford advisers sue the SEC
March 5, 10:52 AM EST
• Third of companies not complying with new tax reporting rule
March 4, 4:25 PM EST
• Regulators aware of problems at First National for six years: audit
March 4, 3:31 PM EST
• Influential advisory group to look at fair-value, off-balance sheet accounting
March 4, 4:16 PM EST
• In a first, NY State hopes to sell bankrupt insurer
March 4, 3:59 PM EST
CRAIN'S BENEFITS OUTLOOK 2009
SPECIAL REPORT
MOST POPULAR
|
MORE ANALYSIS
Crain Financial Group:
InvestmentNews |
Pensions & Investments |
Workforce Management
Copyright ©2010 Crain Communications Inc
All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy |
Terms & Conditions