Saturday, March 20, 2010

"Marketing departments of many drug companies don't respect any boundaries of professionalism or the law"

Since May 2004, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and four other drug companies have paid a total of $7 billion in fines and penalties.

Six of the companies admitted in court that they marketed medicines for unapproved uses. In September 2007, New York-based Bristol-Myers paid $515 million -- without admitting or denying wrongdoing -- to federal and state governments in a civil lawsuit brought by the Justice Department.

The six other companies pleaded guilty in criminal cases.

Much more at WaPo

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A focus on class selling has been embraced. Pharma Rep: New drug in a class..."Doctor we are currently doing studies on ______ .But as you know Drug A did not have the indication at first either...after all this is once a day and lower cost!" (Just sell the drug...physician beware!)