According to Judith Graham at the Chicago Tribune’s Triage blog, Pfizer has created a new program to allow the unemployed–and thus uninsured–to keep access to their prescription drugs for one year.

The cynics will say, of course, that the program is designed to keep brand loyalty for patients while they are out of work, off the insurance rolls, and struggling to make ends meet. The slightly less cynical view is that it is good PR for a company that is still raking in billions and can afford to give a way a few Lipitor prescriptions.

But, in my view, the reality is that this is probably the very best time for Pfizer to give away prescriptions for Lipitor and Viagra and a wide array of other drugs and it will come at probably very little cost to them. Although in the past, very few Americans took advantage of COBRA plans offered through their employer, now they are subsidized heavily through President Obama’s stimulus package for the next 9 months. This is likely to mean that a significant number of severed employees will have health insurance. Those without COBRA benefits or who could not even afford the subsidized benefits should get free drugs from Pfizer. Other pharmas should follow suit as well.

But whether or not Obama’s stimulus subsidized COBRA is why they chose now to start this program really isn’t the issue. Whatever Pfizer’s motives or however many people actually participate the good that is done is what matters–people in need get the drugs that they need. That is what is important.

Summer Johnson, PhD