There's a long, detailed article up over at Bloomberg on the recent run of huge fines for off-label promotion of drugs. Pfizer (PFE), Lilly (LLY), Bristol-Meyers Squibb (BMY), and Schering-Plough (SGP) all get mentioned in great detail.
And there's a key point from the whole depressing thing: the reason that marketing departments do this kind of thing is that it makes money.
Even after you pay a billion dollars in fines, you can still come out ahead, and you might not even have to pay the fines. It's just being put down as a cost of doing business - it's a speeding ticket, and it's being weighed against the cost of driving under the legal limit.
But there's no way that our industry will gain - or regain - respect as long as we operate this way. Have the people involved priced that out as well?Source
1 comment:
To Mr. Lowe and his other commentors.
Jail time is not a disproportionate response when you consider the death and maiming that occur with drugs that simply don't occur with other types of corporate fraud. One of the reasons for the fines is that it is significantly more difficult prove malfeasance with respect to intentional harm as well as the protections in the law when something is given as a medicine.
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