Posted on 09/02/2009 12:06:19 PM PDT by bestintxas
Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, will pay a record $2.3 billion civil and criminal penalty over unlawful prescription drug promotions.
Announcing the settlement Wednesday, the Justice Department said that it included the largest criminal fine in U.S. history -- $1.2 billion. The agreement also included a criminal forfeiture of $105 million.
Authorities called Pfizer a repeat offender, noting it is the fourth such settlement of government charges in the last decade. They said the government will monitor the company's conduct for the next five years to rein in the abuses.
To promote the drugs, authorities said Pfizer invited doctors to consultant meetings at resort locations, paying their expenses and providing perks.
"They were entertained with golf, massages, and other activities," said Mike Loucks, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts.
Loucks said that even as Pfizer was negotiating deals on past misconduct, they were continuing to violate the very same laws with other drugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Zer0's strategy is to break the private sector so they succumb to his wishes?
Why do I think all of this is politically motivated?
Everyone knows that it is not supposed to be doctors who are invited to the resorts! Instead, it is supposed to be congressmen!
Poor Pfizer woke up and found the whore, they were in bed with, had bitten them on the fanny.
Anyway it gives our Dear Leader another couple billion to waste.
When are we going to read about fines on the corporations who took the Black Caucus members island hopping last year? Rangel, Conyers and Sheila Jackson Lee aren’t at all upset by that buying of favors.
So let me get this straight ... not only did we pay for those perks to the doctors, etc., through what we paid for past prescriptions but now we’ll pay off the fine one pill at a time with our future prescriptions? Is that how this is supposed to work?
I think the government is 100% wrong.
They should be able to promote their product in any way they want to!
if Bam thinks the town halls are jumpin’ ugly now, just wait till he puts them out of business and Viagra disappears from the shelves...
Let's see, pay $1M in fines, generate #10M in sales ... so the fine is just a cost of doing business.
Make the fine nearly bankrupt your company, THEN for some reason, morals and ethics seem to come creeping back out of the corner of the room.
Silly government goobers. $2.3B will only get passed on to the citizens by even higher costs for drugs. If they really wanted to stop this behavior, prohibit them from advertising IN ANY MANNER for a period of time - say 6 months.
Hmmm. What do they do with the 2 billion?
While I agree with the concept, the practice is far different. Consider, company 'x' a small company has a drug that is 80% effective in treating a particular disease; but company 'y' has a competing drug that is only 65% effective - but company 'y' is sending you and your family on a trip to Paris for a week.
Who are you going to prescribe to your patients? After all, company 'y' has a drug that is only 'slightly' less effective; but they can afford to send you on a trip. You get nothing at all from company 'x'.
Chances are that you would prescribe company 'y' to the patient, and if they didn't respond to that drug, you'd try company 'x'. This is an unfair business practice, because instead of competing fairly, the smaller company can only compete to win whatever business is not picked up by the larger company. It's an unfair business advantage.
I like the way you think. Kudos
That’s the concern of the doctor and the small and or large company.
The government has no right to “level” the playing field.
The small company had better get their shit together!
OK libs, let me use your mantra:
Here is $2.3 Billion that won’t be used to find a cure for AIDS and Herpes.
Ironic, isn’t it?
$2.3B now simply the cost of doing business.
To be fair, the prosecution of this case probably started during the Bush administration and well before the zero came to office.
Interesting article you sent, and tough to fathom the Pfizer CEO he supports this garbage.
The link has a number of comments to the article which may explain why if read.
In the meantime, his company gets hit with a record fine.
He may be a CEO that is doing what is good for him and not necessarily what is good for his company?
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