January Man of the Month: Greg Simon
January 4th, 2010
Disruptive Women is thrilled to announce our January Man-of-the- Month, Greg Simon, Senior VP of Worldwide Policy at Pfizer.
Greg has served as a senior congressional staff member in both the House and the Senate, was the chief domestic policy advisor to Al Gore, and is past president of Faster Cures.
And now, Greg is Senior Vice President, Worldwide Policy, Pfizer Inc. As such, he leads a global team of professionals in a number of areas including (1) worldwide government policy (2) science policy (3) economic policy and research and (4) international policy.
At the moment, Disruptive Women was interested in his role advising Pfizer’s CEO about the company’s involvement in health care reform.
Greg shared a DVD of a recent speech he presented at a Pfizer legislative conference. In a 25-minute talk we saw why he’s so good at enacting legislative change — he exudes energy and enthusiasm—and he cares about patients. As a motivated, savvy policy and legislative expert, when he talks, you just feel like the right changes are going to be made. Soon.
“Healthcare reform should be about patients,” he told the audience.
His goal is to make sure that everyone not only has access to the doctor — but to the medication too. “It is not enough to say, ‘We make a great medicine,’ if no one takes it,” he instructs those in the audience. “How are we helping with insurance reform? We are helping by making drugs more affordable…. Nobody in America should go without our drugs — or any other company’s drugs — because they can’t afford it. And we have programs to ensure it. But, many people — far too many — don’t know about these programs.”
Still, he pointed out — if drugs were just given out free — “we wouldn’t save a dime on the health care dollar. We’d only save 8 cents,” he says. “And if they were free tomorrow, you wouldn’t have any the day after tomorrow.”
He encouraged everyone when they spoke to legislators to ask them one question: “How will this help patients? Because that’s the question we ask at Pfizer every single day,” he said. “The P in Pfizer is not silent. It stands for patients. And so do we.”
And that’s why we at Disruptive Women chose him as a Man of the Month.
If change doesn’t come right away — we know that this is a man who will keep fighting until it does.
“Every issue is a battle,” he says. And he’s ready to fight—for the patient.
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January 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Good stuff. Finally someone willing to fight for the patient–after all, isn’t that the point?
January 5th, 2010 at 12:46 am
I’d like to hear more about his thoughts on “giving out free drugs would not lower health care costs”. How can we reduce costs, ensure coverage for all, including getting needed medications to all patients, and sustain the “business of health care” as it exists today? How will Pfizer make healthy profits if medications are affordable for all? His passion for patients is wonderful and how will we make this work?
Perhaps he can team up with Dr. Donald Berwick and the IHI who share a passionate commitment to patient safety and health care for all.
Thank you, Disruptive Women in Health Care, for providing a rich source of different perspectives and valuable information.