ST. PAUL - Seeking strength in numbers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked 49 other governors to follow his lead in telling pharmaceutical companies to roll back their American drug prices.

He wants them to use the collective muscle of their state boards of investment, which have billions invested in pharmaceutical industry stock.

Pawlenty wrote his colleagues this week, urging them to pass shareholder resolutions through their investment boards that would press the drug companies to reduce their stateside prices.

"Drug companies simply can't continue to gouge American consumers," Pawlenty said in a statement issued Wednesday with the letter. "We need to demand change."

Pawlenty's letter is the latest in his campaign to combat rising prescription drug costs.

He has been criticized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for launching the first state-run Web site in the country that directs consumers to state-approved pharmacies in Canada that sell many drugs for much cheaper prices. The FDA objects over safety concerns, which the Pawlenty administration says are exaggerated.

Pawlenty is asking the other governors to pattern their resolutions after Minnesota's, which was adopted by the investment board last week. That resolution would have the companies stop "unsustainable and disproportionate pricing" in the United States and cease retaliatory attempts to limit shipments to Canadian pharmacies or wholesalers that are selling to American consumers.

The Minnesota resolution singles out Pfizer, Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and AstraZeneca. The State Board of Investment, which controls a total of $43 billion in state funds, holds $476 million in Pfizer stock - about 0.2 percent of the company's total stock.

"We have a small share relative to Pfizer," said Pawlenty's press secretary, Leslie Kupchella. "But if the governor can start to build pressure throughout the country, maybe we can really effect change."

Kupchella said Pawlenty will follow up with some personal lobbying, calling governors in California, New York and other states with large pension funds.

"We have a lot of shareholders with different views on issues, and we're happy to hear from all of our shareholders," Pfizer spokesman Jack Cox said. He noted that because Minnesota state missed the deadline for such resolutions for next month's annual meeting, the earliest Pfizer could entertain such resolutions would be April 2005.