The pharmaceutical industry has made major contributions to the health of the US public, but it must also be considered part of the nation’s well-organized crime, says an industry critic.
Last week’s $2.3 billion settlement between Pfizer and the US Justice Department for unlawful prescription drug promotion may sound large, but it is not enough to ensure drug companies will curb their bad behavior - in fact, it just shows there is competition in the pharmaceutical industry, according to Sidney Wolfe, director of US advocacy group Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.
Pfizer has broken a record set by Eli Lilly in January for what was then described by the Justice Department as the “largest individual corporate criminal fine” in U.S. history - more than $500 million in criminal penalties for off-label promotion of Zyprexa (olanzapine), its treatment for psychotic conditions including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - but now, just seven months later, Pfizer has broken this record with a criminal fine of $1.2 billion, the largest ever imposed in the US for any matter, he says. The rest of the $2.3 billion represents civil penalties.
“The US pharmaceutical industry, long one of the most profitable in the country with profits last year of close to $50 billion, has engaged in an unprecedented amount of criminal activity in the past decade, all aimed at increasing sales, often by illegally promoting drugs for diseases for which evidence that benefits outweigh harm is lacking - also known as illegal off-label promotion,” says Dr Wolfe. When doctors are induced, either by being bribed or misled by drug companies, to prescribe drugs for such purposes, there is “a reasonable chance” that the drugs will do more harm than good and patients may be seriously injured or killed by such promotion, he warns.
In addition to Pfizer - which also pleaded guilty to criminal charges for off-label promotion of its anticonvulsant Neurontin (gabapentin) in 2004 - and Lilly, other drug companies found to have engaged in criminal activity in the past 10 years include Abbott, Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca, Purdue and Bayer, says Dr Wolfe. However, he adds: “the ever-escalating fines are unlikely to stop drug companies from continuing to bribe doctors because they represent just a fraction of drug company profits and no one has gone to jail.”
Until “corporate titans are forced to fork over a much larger proportion of their illegally-gotten profits and are put behind bars, nothing will change,” he concludes.
By Lynne Taylor
3 comments:
I'll second that. Plus as an FDA reviewer I've got hard evidence (documents) to prove racketeering and insider trading by dozens of FDA officials including at the very highest levels. Unfortunately FDA management has written regs so that you can't release anything publicly and going to the Inspector General or the Office of Special Counsel or even Congress is complete waste of time.
OIG and OSC either don't have the expertise or won't even look at things and then no matter what decides not to pursue things. As for Congress who knows what their motivations and how long they will wait until the time is politically expedient for them if ever. In the meantime we reviewers are harassed and threatened. As the FDA reviewer letter to President Obama states we have a situation where the honest reviewers are afraid of the dishonest ones.
An FDA Reviewer
"FIVE at FIVE"
The Zyprexa antipsychotic drug,whose side effects can include weight gain and diabetes, was sold for "children in foster care, people who have trouble sleeping, elderly in nursing homes." Five at Five was the Zyprexa sales rep slogan, meaning 5mg dispensed at 5pm would keep patients quiet.
Google * Eli Lilly Zyprexa * and read the links,this is for a product that we put in our children's bodies.
$10 a pill
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Daniel Haszard
They all should be investigated and charged all the profits in fines.....they are killing people and then laughing all the way to the bank....zyprexa alone has already killed millions. The FDA is paid off regularly...
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