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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (5785)	10/3/1998 10:55:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9523

Sydney Morning Herald - Stiff-arm tactics, plus Viagra in key seat smh.com.au Excerpts: Ross Cameron's enemies say he's got a boost from Viagra. Well, not literally. They say a big donation from the maker of Viagra, the multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which has a factory in Parramatta, has put a kick in the Liberal MP's campaign. The candidate can't resist a smile. "One of my colleagues said yesterday, "I heard Pfizer gave you $50 [thousand]'. I would love it if that was the case - but it was a fraction." $10,000? "More around that," he agrees. With his leg thrown over the chair and his ear half cocked to his mobile phone, Mr Cameron is talking about money, power and marginal seats. Outside his office, Parramatta is a political battlefield. No voter can escape the assault from a barrage of political leaflets, personalised letters, postcards, posters and pollsters. From dawn to dusk, voters are stalked at the railway station, on the ferry, at the shopping mall and in their homes. Whoever wins Parramatta tomorrow will probably win government so it's hand-to-hand combat for every vote. It's gruelling and it's very, very expensive. The serious candidate, Liberal or Labor, must come armed with a fistful of dollars. "If you are a Member of Parliament in a marginal seat, one of your key skills has got to be to raise money, that's just the fact of modern political life," Mr Cameron says honestly. "I did a lot of work for Pfizer over about 12 months," Mr Cameron explains. The company was looking to expand its factory, raising the possibility of another 100 jobs in Parramatta, but it was worried about the Government's policy changes over drug price subsidies. "I gave them some advice on what they need to do to educate politicians about those issues," he says. He told Pfizer's executives all the various ministers, health bureaucrats, backbench committees and parliamentary secretaries they needed to see. His Canberra staffer escorted company executives around Parliament, indeed did it so well that he left Mr Cameron to work for Pfizer. "I regard this as just the bread and butter of democracy and of politics, working as a clearing house, having an effective communication between government and industry," says Mr Cameron. Pfizer has yet to make its decision on expansion but the company not only kicked in for the campaign, it also forked out for a fundraising dinner for Mr Cameron and the Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, along with several other big pharmaceutical and health companies. They of course made sure they went to the dinner for Labor's health spokesman, Mr Michael Lee, at the Ritz Carlton, as well.