Pfizer to Pay $2.3 Billion for fraudulent marketing!!!

[Abbas Bubakar El-ta'alu]

          Pfizer is not a new name to many Nigerians. Here are some of the results of the activities of the company; how I wish all state Governors, the Minister of Health, etc, would have the time to read this post!
          The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. (hereinafter together "Pfizer") have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the American Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products.
The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn will also forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1.3 billion.
          In addition, Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs – Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug – and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs. The federal share of the civil settlement is $668,514,830 and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $331,485,170. This is the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.
          As part of the settlement, Pfizer also has agreed to enter into an expansive corporate integrity agreement with the American Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. That agreement provides for procedures and reviews to be put in place to avoid and promptly detect conduct similar to that which gave rise to this matter.

Reference: http://www.healthy.net/scr/News.asp?id=10206