Viagra Maker Should Learn to Love America Again

Pfizer Inc., the maker of Lipitor, Viagra and so many other drugs that have improved lives, is a great American company -- and it owes America a great deal. The U.S. has laws that protect Pfizer's patents and trademarks. Taxpayers dig deep into their pockets to fund Medicare and Medicaid, which buy the company's products by the truckload. Pfizer gets generous tax breaks for research-and-development expenses. And it benefits immensely from government sponsorship of basic research by the National Institutes of Health.

So here's the gratitude that Americans get: Pfizer has proposed moving its legal address to the U.K. from New York as part of its bid for London-based AstraZeneca Plc. The reason? The U.K. has a lower tax rate. Pfizer is one of at least 19 other companies making or considering similar moves, including Chiquita Brands International Inc. and the advertising giant Omnicom Group Inc., according to Bloomberg News. AstraZeneca last week turned down a $106 billion offer by Pfizer, which has said it will continue to pursue a deal.