Categorized | Healthcare
Pfizer Gets Historic Fraud Fine
by BeyondGoodAndEvil
Posted on 18 September 2009 | 12:25 pm 
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In an under-reported news item that got lost amongst the din of the healthcare debacle, Pfizer has been slapped with the largest criminal fraud fine in U.S. history.
Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay a total of $2.3 billion in civil and criminal fines and a felony plea by one of its subsidiaries, in an effort to close a DOJ investigation into it’s fraudulent marketing practices.
“When a drug is marketed or promoted for non-authorized, so-called off-label uses, any use not approved by the FDA – as was the case here – public health may be at risk,” said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, below:
Pfizer has also entered into a five-year integrity agreement with the HHS Department as part of the settlement. The criminal case resulted from allegations that Bextra, a painkiller, and thirteen other drugs including Zyvox and Geodon, were promoted by Pfizer for uses other than those approved by the FDA.
In the case of Zyvox, Ronald Rainero, a former district manager at Pfizer in NYC, alleged Pfizer pushed Zyvox off-label for use against all infections of the superbug MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Zyvox costs eight times as much as vancomycin, and catheter patients given Zyvox have an 8% greater chance of dying than if treated with vancomycin.
Pfizer allgedly paid a doctor $4,000 a day to promote the anti-psychotic Geodon. The doctor charged Pfizer to use a private helicopter to get to off-label speaking events, according to a lawsuit that was part of the Bextra settlement. Mark R. Westlock was a sales rep for Pfizer from 1991 to 2007. He brought a suit against Pfizer, after he was forced to resign. Westlock alleged that Dr. Neil S. Kaye of Wilmington, Del., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, received $4,000 a day in speaker fees to talk to other doctors about “the off label use of Geodon® in adolescents“. He’ll sell his services to anyone, especially lawyers. He was used so frequently by Pfizer that he was flown by ‘copter to some of his gigs‘ testified Westlock.
Pfizer’s stock price shrugged off the fine, after it’s acquisition of Wyeth earlier this month around the same time as the fine was publicly announced.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, spent almost “$5.6 million lobbying the government in the second quarter on health care reform, government spending on medication, and patent and trade issues, according to a recent disclosure report.” This is double the amount of lobbying money spent from the same period, one year ago.
Big pharma’s tentacles are everywhere. Pfizer not only lobbied Congress with the $5.6 million, but also lobbied the White House, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and departments of Treasury, Commerce, State, Defense, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs.
Last month, the FDA issued the agency’s strongest warning on Pfizer’s Chantix, a smoking cessation drug that has been reported to increase the chance of suicidal thoughts and depression. Suicidal thoughts? Smoking might not be so harmful, if Chantix leads to depression and suicide.
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213,279 Comments Since March 2009 
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Money, money, money.
Ugh.
I do, however, see nothing wrong with a drug being used for a different purpose than intended if there is no other drug that can have a similar positive effect.
Case in point: a young man in San Diego, Scott Eveland, who sustained a traumatic brain injury during a high school football game becomes lucid and coherent for a short time after ingesting the sleeping pill Ambien.
Another example: preliminary research has shown improvements in horses with navicular disease (a long-term, career-ending condition of bones in the hooves) by injecting Botox.
Of course, what Pfizer was doing was a whole n’other thing. And shame on the doctors who played along. Greedy bastards.
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Imagine what would happen to joe schmoe for selling drugs illegally like Pfizer. Two words: Jail time.
Btw, did a Google search on Pfizer, this story came up first. Nice job.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:47 am
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that is good news.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:50 am
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This is the reason why the “war on drugs” is nothing more than a farce. It’s more a mechanism to keep people drugged up on RX and warn the rest of society, that if you don’t go along with the plan, this is where you’ll end up. If Americans dare use drugs (illegal) where pharma can’t get a cut, then it’s jail time.
If big pharma could patent chronic, and charge you more for their special enhanced formula, they would. No qualms.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:54 am
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The War on Drugs also perpetuates gang activity whose suppression leads to a permanent underclass of non-whites.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:02 am
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Agreed. And going further, without a master class and an underclass you can’t con the underclass into believing they can one day get into the country club. That’s where we are right now. They seduce the underclass into believing if they go along with the corporate program, they’ll have a chance to join the masterclass and assert their authority over the underclass.
Class is rarely talked about because it’s such a taboo subject.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:10 am
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Class is a verboten subject as the Right spent billions convincing the citizens that communism was not in their interests and that the lowly cowboy was equal to a Rockefeller under free market capitalism.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:23 am
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BTW: One thing which has always amazed me is that the term “cowboy”, originally an insult meaning someone so stupid they could only tend cows, was transformed into a model of rugged individualism.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:39 am
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LOL Good point. But don’t you think that Americans love the image of the cowboy a la John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood?
It’s sad that so much of what he have is cultural stereotypes, meant to quell individualism and to give people false images of themselves to boost their self esteem, and associate themselves with fictional characters.
Clearing brush, because you abhor reading or any intellectual pursuits, doesn’t make you a cowboy. Owning a non working ranch with no livestock, does not make you a cowboy. Neither does a Texas accent, or a folksy down home way of speaking, or mispronouncing nuclear, or wearing a cowboy hat.
The image of cowboy has evolved into that of a trivial costume.
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Wow! I hadn’t heard a thing about this! Finally, the FDA / DOJ are doing something about the pharmacy companies like Pfizer. My primary care physician believes these drug companies should never be allowed to advertise their products in such a lax irresponsible way.
GReat post.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
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Thanks SK. It’s sort of good that they were forced to do something (because of a number of lawsuits brought forward by ex Pfizer employees and class action suits) and it’s good that Pfizer got their ass handed to them on a plate by the DOJ, but all that lobbying money helped Pfizer reach a settlement so the DOJ doesn’t have to keep investigating and uncovering all the crimes. The FDA knows all about this off label use and doesn’t really enforce, because they are being funded by pharma.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
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The FDA is worthless IMO. I wish someone would do a post about exactly what it is they do. I confess, it’s only one of the gov agencies I don’t get because they certainly don’t regulate the beef / poultry industry like they should. Or maybe that falls under the Ag Dept. See, I’m really clueless when it comes to the roles certain gov agencies play in our daily lives.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
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The FDA gets paid to approve drugs that are more likely to kill you than the disease you take them for. Oh, and they are also supposed to regulate how many parts per million of maggots are allowed in your meat. Mmmmmmm….. Maggots, it’s whats for dinner.
Dept of Agriculture makes sure poisonous pesticides are used liberally on crops, and they pay the other farmers not to grow anything at all. They also subsidize ConAgra so they can realize their dream of owning every single food brand name out there.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
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There you go. Thanks for that, Noch. I knew the DOA had a purpose. Glad to know it subsidizes ConAgra, I really worried about that company. Ha!
It seems to me if the FDA actually did their job we wouldn’t have so many problems with our meat but then again…maybe we would. :shrugs:
September 19th, 2009 at 7:35 am
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Robin Cook wrote a novel called “Toxin” which explores the cozy relationship between the DofA and the beef factories.
It makes for scary reading.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:42 am
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Bingo Noch. My husband interviewed at the FDA lab in Boston.
You know what they told him?
I’m paraphrasing here…
“We don’t really test everything either that comes into the country, or that’s produced here, regarding food safety. We never know about anything toxic or harmful, until there’s a problem. “
September 18th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
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So basically what you’re saying is Pfizer got off easy and since it was a “settlement” that pretty much closes the books on this issue?
September 19th, 2009 at 7:40 am
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Yes. Unfortunately, nothing is really being done to stop future off label use.
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One of the reasons we’ve basically heard nothing about this story on the cable and news networks is because Pfizer and other pharmas advertise so heavily through that medium.
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in related news, an Insurance co. was just slapped with a $10 million judgment for dropping a customer when he discovered he was HIV positive
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/09/16/Insurer_to_Pay_$10M_for_Resci ssion_Based_on_HIV.htm
September 18th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
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Wow. Thanks for that. Did you read that India have been telling US pharma to go eff themselves, when it comes to patent claims on drugs that are considered essential medicines by the World Health Organization.
http://www.silobreaker.com/india-patent-rejections-welcomed-by-hivaids -groups-reuters-5_2262588411829288962
September 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
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I have been taking advantage of that fact for a while now. India doesn’t recognize pharmaceutical patents of any kind. I get my albuterol rescue inhalers from India for a fifth of the cost of buying them here. Plus they work, unlike the only rescue inhaler legally allowed in the United States…
The reason they do it is religious based, believing that is their duty to help mankind in any way they can.
Yay India!
September 18th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
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Here Babsy-Wabsy … come and get the fresh hot Curry Pie
September 18th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
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September 18th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
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Good for you! Drug prices here are the most expensive in the world.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
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Gotta LOVE those Indians!
September 18th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
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Hi Babs!
September 18th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
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It’s not sore any more.
September 18th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
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Glad to know. I’m sure Pfizer has some sort of cream to help that, anyway – Soothebuttache (TM)