Pfizer Is Softening Impact Of Raising Drug Prices With Media PR

Corporate news outlets like Semafor are running sponsored posts from Pfizer bragging about how the pharma manufacturer is altruistically working to expand access to its products overseas — the same month Pfizer raised prices on 99 of its drugs in the US, Andrew Perez reported for Jacobin magazine.

Photo Insert: The pharmaceutical giant is paying news outlets to tell a different story — a fawning tale about how the company has been altruistically working to expand access to its products overseas.

Pfizer recently made headlines for hiking prices in the US, shortly after the company announced plans to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine.

Now, the pharmaceutical giant is paying news outlets to tell a different story — a fawning tale about how the company has been altruistically working to expand access to its products overseas.

On Tuesday, the news website Semafor ran a sponsored post from pfizer bragging about the drugmaker’s efforts to “increase access to health care innovation” in low-income countries.

Pfizer has also sponsored Semafor’s DC-focused “principals” newsletter for Washington insiders in recent days.

Next week, The Hill will host an event sponsored by Pfizer entitled “expanding adult vaccine access,” which will feature several dc lawmakers and a top federal healthcare regulator.

The Pfizer sponsorships are just the latest examples of how, when the news coverage gets rough, big businesses can pay corporate media to change the narrative and run counterprogramming — with the hope that policymakers and consumers will be sufficiently distracted from the stories that really matter.

So-called “sponsored content” and event sponsorships have become an essential part of the corporate media business model — and they’ve become major revenue sources for Beltway publications like Politico, Axios, and Punchbowl News, as well as legacy newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

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