Health products giant Pfizer is still considering to move abroad despite the United States' attempts to stop It from leaving to country.
Pfizer, America's biggest drug maker pushed through with plans of transferring abroad, according to Chief Executive Officer Ian Read in a statement on Tuesday.
"I see no reason why we wouldn't be able to do an inversion," Read stated in a telephone interview after the announcement of Pfizer's Q3 results.
The transfer of the company abroad is called an "inversion," where Pfizer aims to re-incorporate the brand to a lower-tax country to reduce tax burden on income earned in New York, where its headquarters is located.
Corporate inversion has become an emerging topic for debate. Critics who include lawmakers argue that corporate inversions may not benefit others as it makes their tax burdens heavier.
The goal of Pfizer was to escape the United States' 35 percent corporate tax rate, the highest across the globe.
However, Pfizer will not be able to materialize its goal as of the moment because of the Obama administration strengthening its efforts in August to prevent corporate tax inversion.
Just recently, Abbvie Inc. and Shire Plc did not push through a deal that would have created the biggest U.S. tax inversion because of U.S. rule changes. AbbVie planned to move its legal address to Britain.
Similarly, Salix Pharmaceuticals and Cosmo Pharmaceuticals also ended a $2.7 billion deal after the rules were changed.
Meanwhile, Pfizer failed to seal the deal with London-based AstraZeneca which would have bolstered the company's portfolio and move its legal address overseas.
Aside from that, Pfizer was also in discussions with Irish-based Actavis about a possible acquisition.
Third-quarter net income jumped 3 percent to $2.67 billion, or 42 cents a share, from $2.59 billion, or 39 cents, a year earlier. Earnings excluding one-time items of 57 cents a share beat by 2 cents the average of 18 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg..
