Occupy Wall Street protesters marched around midtown Manhattan on Wednesday chanting anti-corporate slogans outside banks and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Scores of police officers followed the protesters on foot and on motorcycles and used metal barricades to keep them from their targets, including Citibank and Bank of America branches.

Outside of Pfizer’s headquarters on East 42nd Street, protesters unfurled a banner that said “Health care for the 99 percent.”

“I have to go to Canada to buy Pfizer drugs for half the price that I pay for them here,” said Michael Miller, 68.  Miller said he takes prescription drugs including Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering medication, which is sold by Pfizer.

A Pfizer spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the protest.

Protesters then headed to Bryant Park, where Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi led a teach-in about Bank of America. He described mortgage-backed securities as “banks selling oregano as weed.”

The protesters then tried to rally outside the Bank of America Tower, across from the park, but police officers kept them away from the tower, arresting a woman dressed in red tights and clown makeup. Another protester was arrested for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk.

A police spokesman had no information on the midtown arrests but he said nine protesters were arrested early Wednesday in lower Manhattan and another four in the East Village.

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