Pfizer pays record healthcare fraud settlement / fine

For anyone keeping score, Pfizer set a new record yesterday. The U.S. pharmaceutical giant has agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement with the US department of Justice. This represents both the largest healthcare fraud settlement and largest criminal fine of any kind in American history. 

 

Of this settlement, $1.0 billion goes to satisfy civil suits over several different drugs. The larger portion, $1.3 billion, is a criminal fine related to several drugs, including the anti-inflammatory/painkiller Bextra. Pfizer allegedly marketed Bextra illegally by aggressively promoting the drug for “off label” uses (i.e. uses or doses not approved by the FDA). Other allegations suggest that Pfizer treated health care providers to lavish resort stays in an effort to push Bextra and other products.  Bextra was voluntarily withdrawn in 2005 amid concerns about its link to pulmonary blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.  

 

Record verdicts aside, however, Pfizer has already shown itself to something of a recidivist. Over the past 10 years they have made four similar settlements with the US DOJ and have, since 2002, signed three separate “corporate integrity” agreements.

 

According to the DOJ, Pfizer generates sales of over $2.3 billion in less than 3 weeks.

 

Given this, it may be worth asking whether occasional criminal fines, even of this magnitude, have become little more than a cost of doing business for the pharmaceutical giant.