THE RYAN REPORT

Planned Parenthood's sweetheart deal with Barr Pharmaceuticals

This short article will give you the inside information on how Planned Parenthood has made tens of millions from Plan B and is going to make hundreds of millions in the future.

Plan B is also called the "morning after pill," or "Emergency Contraception," or by its medical name, Levonorgestrel. This product is intended to be taken within 72 hours of having intercourse. Although the marketing material for Plan B says that it will "prevent pregnancy," the medical information on how it works says that, some of the time, it may allow fertilization to occur and it then prevents implantation of the already created human person. Therefore, this product kills.

Many medical professionals, including a large number of pharmacists, are clearly aware of this action of Plan B and are refusing to fill prescriptions for it, citing the fact that providing a drug that ends the life of a human person in the womb is against their moral beliefs.

There is an aspect to the current fight to make Plan B available OTC that needs to be examined. That aspect is the all-out public relations battle being waged by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to make Plan B available OTC. American Life League's offices have received several calls from people asking, "Why is Planned Parenthood pushing for OTC status? Won't they lose a lot of money if this happens?"

To answer that question, we need to take a quick look at the history of Plan B and the sweetheart deal Planned Parenthood has worked out with the drug's current owner - Barr Pharmaceuticals.

Plan B was originally developed by the Women's Capital Corporation. The WCC was a privately held company, organized in 1997, to bring Plan B to the U.S. and Canadian markets. WCC's effort to develop and market Plan B was a public/private sector partnership, involving not-for-profit organizations, such as the Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Technology in Health. Financing for Plan B came, in large part, from U.S. foundations, such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the Compton Foundation. Robert Wallace, chairman of the Wallace Global Fund, was the project's "angel investor." Five Planned Parenthood affiliates also made equity investments in Plan B. Thus, these Planned Parenthood affiliates will directly profit from any sale of Plan B or the WCC.

On July 28, 1999, the WCC announced that the FDA had approved sale of Plan B as a prescription drug. The WCC began an all-out effort to get Plan B accepted in the marketplace. Planned Parenthood had a major part in this marketing plan, selling almost 100,000 Plan B kits by the end of the year. Planned Parenthood continued to put a major emphasis on the product and, by 2003, had sold a total of 2,000,000 Plan B kits, driving up the interest in the product and the financial value of its affiliates' investment in WCC.

On April 21, 2003, the WCC filed an application with the FDA to make Plan B available over the counter. The move would certainly create a broader market for Plan B and make it a more valuable commodity. Recognizing the income potential, in October, Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. executed and announced a letter of intent to acquire WCC. On December 16, two FDA advisory committees recommended approval of OTC status for Plan B. This clearly set Barr in motion and, on February 26, 2004, Barr announced that it had completed its acquisition of all outstanding shares of Women's Capital Corporation.

According to the announcement, Barr agreed to pay a total of approximately $21 million. Barr reportedly paid WCC approximately $7 million in cash and issued a four-year promissory note of $6.5 million to WCC. In addition, Barr paid approximately $6.7 million to discharge most of the assumed liabilities, with the remaining liabilities due over a two-year period.

So, the expected FDA approval of OTC status for Plan B has already paid dividends for the Planned Parenthood affiliates who invested in the product. But that is not the end of it. Filings in a lawsuit being heard in a California court shed more light on how all of Planned Parenthood has profited and will profit from Plan B.

In the case of Gonzalez v. Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, a former top financial officer of PPLA is suing the affiliate for wrongfully terminating his employment. Among the papers filed with the court case is an internal Planned Parenthood e-mail that reveals the tremendous profits Planned Parenthood has made from Plan B and the sweetheart deal it has with Barr.

In a February 9, 2004 e-mail from the PPFA vice president of medical affairs, Vanessa Cullins, M.D., all Planned Parenthood affiliate CEOs were informed that the sale of WCC would be completed by the end of the month. Cullins revealed in the e-mail that Planned Parenthood was "in the midst of confidential discussions" with Barr and that Planned Parenthood's "immediate interest is to develop and protect our market base." (emphasis added)

Cullins then wrote that "Barr's senior management has informed us that they are committed to hold intact public sector pricing and the Planned Parenthood special pricing at $4.50 and $4.25, respectively, for the next five years. This will remain valid whether the product becomes an over-the-counter product or continues with prescription status." (emphasis added)

On reading this startling e-mail, we at STOPP immediately asked our people around the country to conduct a survey and determine what Planned Parenthood was charging for Plan B at its clinics. Results came in from across the country and prices varied from $18 to $42, but the average was $25. So, here you have a product that Planned Parenthood purchases for less than $5 and sells for an average of $25. Planned Parenthood is making a profit of over $20 on each kit it sells. In 2003, Planned Parenthood reported selling 774,482 kits in that year alone. Thus, Planned Parenthood made over $15 million in profit from this one product in that one year!

Our research showed that the average retail price for Plan B is about $32. So, not only is Planned Parenthood making a huge profit, but because of the "special pricing" from Barr, it is able to undercut its competition.

So what happens if Plan B is available over the counter? We know from Cullins' e-mail that Barr has committed to hold the retail price steady. This means that Planned Parenthood will still be able to significantly undercut the retail stores and still make an outrageous profit.

In addition, the OTC status will greatly increase Planned Parenthood's ability to sell the product in different venues. We can envision PP taking the kits to county fairs and selling it directly from its booths. We can envision them at health fairs across the country hawking this product that kills human persons in the womb. We certainly expect Planned Parenthood to sell the products by phone and through its stores on the internet.

With its five-year Barr sweetheart deal, Planned Parenthood stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars from OTC availability of this one product. Is it any wonder that Planned Parenthood is so forcefully pushing for FDA approval and has recently threatened to file a lawsuit against the FDA if it dares to deny OTC status?

Planned Parenthood will allow nothing to get in the way of its money train.

Wonder why Planned Parenthood is pushing so hard for over-the-counter status for Plan B? Now you know. Let's use this information to derail Planned Parenthood.

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