Pfizer named a "Thug" of the Medical World

Excerpts from "Top 6 thugs of the Medical World, How Big Pharma Steals and Swindles"
http://www.revolutionbroadcasting.com/?p=3702

Too Big to Fail?

You may recall that I wrote about this – in the largest health care fraud settlement in history, Pfizer was ordered to pay $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including the painkiller Bextra. The other drugs were the antipsychotic Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the anti-epileptic Lyrica.

Only a few years earlier, Pfizer had paid $430 million for illegally promoting uses of its seizure drug, Neurontin.

Yet, these are just a few examples of all the “mistakes” Pfizer has made through the years, making it very clear why AllBusiness.com named this company No. 17 in the Top Corporate Criminals for the 1990s.

Technically speaking, companies found guilty of fraud like this are banned from dealing with Medicare and Medicaid again. But, as I’ve already reported, do you think that happened with Pfizer?

Nope.

Instead, in a slap-on-the-wrist move that resembled the too-big-to-fail bank bailouts, federal prosecutors allowed Pfizer to avoid being sentenced for massive fraud and deception by letting them form a sham company to take the fall.

So, in the end, Pfizer’s “imaginary friend” Pharmacia & Upjohn shouldered the conviction, even though it had never sold any drugs. As CNN found, “the subsidiary is nothing more than a shell company whose only function is to plead guilty.”

And Pfizer got off scot-free, except for that little $2.3 billion fine that amounted to just three months’ profits.

Further Pfizer has had been found guilty of fraud and /or illegal sales activeity in 9 cases.  Pfizer has over 10,000 Individual or class actions suits totalling over $4 Billion Dollars.

for entire article with info on J&J, Roche GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Baxter International see:

http://www.revolutionbroadcasting.com/?p=3702