It was rejected today  with little hope of Pfizer bidding again :( . It would have made the largest pharma company in the world. The HQ would have been in New York, but the company would be based in the UK because the corportate tax there is a lot lower. 

Pharmas aren't the most selfish out there... I mean, at least they profit from treating people. Can't really say the same thing about BAE Systems or Lockheed Martin.

How about how Pharma companies keep diseases from being cured so that people will buy their pills over and over vs getting fixed once..... I repeat pharamaceutical companies are BY FAR the greediest sector of business

How about how Pharma companies keep diseases from being cured so that people will buy their pills over and over vs getting fixed once..... I repeat pharamaceutical companies are BY FAR the greediest sector of business

That's pretty much a conspiracy theory. If a pharmaceutical company has a cure, they will get it out and charge exorbiant costs until a generic version is made.

Have you noticed how much medical science has progressed just in the last two decades?

Not if its not profitable for them. Why don't you think they spend billions researching cures for diseases affecting people in the developing world? The answer is that it just won't make them money. 

Ah, that's not as exciting then.

One of the major UK pharmas was actually going to leave the UK over the ridiculous taxes here, and head over to a place like Switzerland. The UK Gov't actually pulled some dirty tricks regarding elements of the pharmas history and effectively forced them to stay put. I don't know too many details, but I know it involved HMRC, it never made it out into the public, though, so it's hard to tell exactly what went on.

Interesting. In the US  the corporate tax is 35% and in the UK its 20%. Switzerland may have lower taxes, but I'm sure there are other costs of operating there that are higher than other places. 

Well, yeah, Switzerland has a ridiculously high cost of living. But moving to Switzerland doesn't actually mean moving to Switzerland, it just means that you say you're from Switzerland and file your taxes there, for all intents and purposes the company would have stayed in UK.

It's like Starbucks in the UK, technically makes losses every year in the UK... because it has to pay huge "license fees" to Starbucks USA/Netherlands/Switzerland.

That's true, but there must be some sort of catch, otherwise every firm would want to be based in Switzerland. I was reading a news article this week that said because costs are so high there, they were voting on increasing the minimum wage to $25 :O . But they decided against it. But imagine, if that's the minimum wage they thought was fair, then I wonder what excecutives or top professionals earn there...

The Starbucks thing is very interesting. I think Google, Amazon and loads of companies that operate in Europe base themselves in Ireland, so they don't have to pay taxes in the countries they are based in.