Venezuela to Pfizer: Sell plant or else

Venezuela's fight with Pfizer continues. Officials are once again threatening to seize one of the drugmaker's plants there, after Pfizer transferred production to another facility. And they're threatening to do so within a few days.

The government has been in talks with Pfizer to buy the plant since June, but no agreement has been reached yet. Trade Minister Eduardo Saman said essential drugs had been made at that plant, and that Pfizer had broken the law when it closed the facility. Pfizer, however, says it simply moved production from that plant to another in the same region, and that it would sell the plant to the government as a going concern, Pharmafocus reports.

But Saman told local reporters that the drugmaker has no intention of selling the plant. Pfizer doesn't want domestic competition for its products, the minister said. Pfizer, however, says it does want to sell. The two sides are meeting again this week; Saman says that the government could step in and take over the plant within a few days if an agreement isn't reached.

- read the story in Pharmafocus

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