Reply #9: Medical Companies Donate to Quake Victims

[rainbow4321]

http://www.baytownsun.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/Q/QUAKE_DRUG_DONATIONS?SITE=TXBAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- From antibiotics and pain relievers to bandages, hospital supplies and cash, pharmaceutical and health care companies are lining up donations for victims of Sunday's devastating earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia and eastern Africa.


Pfizer Inc. of New York, the world's biggest drug company, said Wednesday it will donate $10 million to relief groups operating in the affected countries. Health care giant Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick announced an initial cash donation of $2 million and was sending wound care, pain relief and personal care products. Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Ill., also was giving $2 million in cash, plus $2 million in products such as child nutritional supplement PediaSure.

Whitehouse Station-based Merck & Co. Inc. pledged an initial contribution of $250,000 to the American Red Cross, plus donations of medicine, while Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. of New York committed $100,000 through the Red Cross and said it will be shipping antibiotics and other products to the region


Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's biggest hospital systems, said it would send some of its 5,000 doctors to help and would donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross. Some companies said they were planning major donations of their products but were waiting for direction from the United Nations or private relief groups such as Project HOPE and AmeriCares to avoid waste. Those included drug makers Wyeth, Schering-Plough Corp. and medical supply maker Becton, Dickinson and Co.