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Big Pharma: A Real War Against Drugs
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Sep 12, 2009 02:02pm |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Author | Joseph Grosso |
| News Date | Saturday, September 12, 2009 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The news on September 3rd didn’t even receive a front page headline in the New York Times. In fact it didn’t even flash across the headlines of the Times’ Business Section. This is strange if only due to the fact that news did have the novelty of involving the largest criminal fine of all time. That was what the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, agreed to pay in a settlement with the Justice Department over unlawful prescription drug promotions. The fine itself came out to $1.2 billion. Plus Pfizer must pay another $1 billion to compensate Medicaid and Medicare, which along with a criminal forfeiture, all comes to $2.3 billion.
The criminal charge related to a painkiller called Bextra, considered a Cox-2 inhibitor, which was pulled from the market back in 2005 due to mounting evidence that it increased the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. According to the government Bextra, and several other drugs, were promoted as treatment for medical conditions beyond the conditions which the FDA had approved for them. It was the fourth such illegal marketing settlement for Pfizer in the last decade and much like the other three it hardly put a dent in its fortunes ($2.3 billion amounts to less than 3 weeks of Pfizer sales) as its stock declined a mere 14 cents on the very day of the settlement and the company announced plans to acquire rival drug maker Wyeth for $68 billion. The deal is expected to be finalized before the New Year.
In the pharmaceutical industry Pfizer may be the largest shark but it’s hardly a solitary rogue when it comes to this sort of thing. In January of this year Eli Lilly coughed up $1.4 billion for its illegal marketing of Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic with the usual slew of side effects; and Bextra being pulled from the market was hardly an isolated case. Since 1992 more than a dozen drugs have been pulled from the market or had strict limits put on their use. |
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