A Senate Finance Committee report, covered by STAT News, says Pfizer sold $20 billion worth of medicines to Americans in 2019—but claimed no U.S. profit. All income was booked offshore. No federal income tax that year. None in 2018. None in 2020. One lawmaker called it “the largest tax-dodging scheme” in pharmaceutical history.
It gets darker.
During the COVID emergency, the U.S. paid Pfizer nearly $2 billion for 100 million vaccine doses. That was just one deal. The total payout to Pfizer and BioNTech exceeded $10 billion. BioNTech took nearly $450 million from Germany. Pfizer declined U.S. R&D funds but got guaranteed contracts, fast-track approvals, and liability protection. Risks were downplayed. Americans trusted. They paid. Executives profited. Pfizer cleared $100 billion in revenue in 2022.
When Pfizer and others moved offshore, it wasn’t just about taxes. It hollowed out U.S. manufacturing. We lost our edge. We did it to ourselves.
Now we depend on foreign powers—some adversarial—for drugs, materials, and tech. That’s not trade. That’s exposure.
Trump saw the danger. Bringing it back isn’t nostalgia. It’s survival.
And it’s not just pharma.
Steel mills sit idle. Tool shops fold. Rare earths? Controlled by China. Semiconductors? Taiwan. Our supply chains are brittle. That’s not free trade. That’s vulnerability.
I remember when Kaiser Aluminum opened near my hometown. Mason County folks lined up for steady work. That plant brought pride. But over time, profits slipped, owners changed, and the plant shut down in 2015. The Ravenswood site is now being retooled by Berkshire Hathaway for aerospace. It’s a hopeful turn—but also a reminder.
We had it.
We did it well.
We lost it.
We want it back.
Tariffs are blunt tools. They can help or harm. I don’t support tariffing medicine—the sick shouldn’t carry the cost. But I wholeheartedly support bring the pharmaceutical industry home.
But companies profiting here while booking income offshore? Tax them. And don’t bribe them to come home. They owe us.
“Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a country appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures.”
— Alexander Hamilton, 1791
Hamilton saw it. We forgot it.
#MadeInAmerica #PfizerProfits #ManufacturingMatters #TaxDodge #TrumpPolicy #NationalSecurity #StateNewsCommentary