Big Pharma’s secret pricing tactics keep staff and ATO in the dark
Andrew Nicholl had a 25 year career as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. He held senior leadership roles in Australia and overseas where he worked as a managing director in Taiwan, Venezuela and Hong Kong for three of the top five global pharmaceutical companies.
Even as a country boss for "big pharma", Nicholl said he was often kept in the dark about product pricing matters.
"The actual cost of the product was always closely guarded by headquarters and not freely or willingly shared with local management," he said.
"At a subsidiary or country level, all we were given was the transfer price that the company gave us. The real "upstream" P&L (profit and loss) of the country I was managing was never really known to me."
The secrecy over transfer prices and the actual cost of goods has been the same in all of these large companies, said Nicholl, who spoke with Fairfax Media after recent revelations the Australian Tax Office was investigating some of the pharmaceutical majors for tax avoidance. Sydney Morning Herald – Read more…
Even as a country boss for "big pharma", Nicholl said he was often kept in the dark about product pricing matters.
"The actual cost of the product was always closely guarded by headquarters and not freely or willingly shared with local management," he said.
"At a subsidiary or country level, all we were given was the transfer price that the company gave us. The real "upstream" P&L (profit and loss) of the country I was managing was never really known to me."
The secrecy over transfer prices and the actual cost of goods has been the same in all of these large companies, said Nicholl, who spoke with Fairfax Media after recent revelations the Australian Tax Office was investigating some of the pharmaceutical majors for tax avoidance. Sydney Morning Herald – Read more…
Recent Posts
