Pfizer: Long History of a Serial Offender, Part One - Healthcare Fraud - Illegal Marketing - Product Safety & Dangerous Diet Drugs - Bribery of Public Officials & Doctors
OVERVIEW OF A LONG-TERM SERIAL BIG PHARMA OFFENDER’S CIVIL AND CRIMINAL RECORD
As per findings of the Corporate Research Project:
“Pfizer made itself the largest pharmaceutical company in the world in large part by purchasing its competitors. In the last dozen years it has carried out three mega-acquisitions: Warner-Lambert in 2000, Pharmacia in 2003, and Wyeth in 2009. Then, in 2015, Pfizer announced a $160 billion deal to merge with Allergan and move its headquarters to Ireland to avoid U.S. taxes but subsequently had to abandon the plan.
“Pfizer has also grown through aggressive marketing—a practice it pioneered back in the 1950’s by purchasing unprecedented advertising spreads in medical journals, which calls into question the possibility of such medical journals remaining free and unbiased in its medical and scientific journalistic work.”
In 2009 Pfizer agreed to pay a record breaking, staggering $2.3 billion settlement to resolve criminal and civil charges relating to the improper marketing of its painkiller Bextra and three other medications. The amount was a record for a healthcare fraud settlement. John Kopchinski, a former Pfizer sales representative whose complaint helped bring about the federal investigation, told the New York Times: “The whole culture of Pfizer is driven by sales, and if you didn’t sell drugs illegally, you were not seen as a team player.” As part of the settlement, Pfizer had to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“In the area of product safety, Pfizer’s biggest scandal involved defective heart valves sold by its Shiley subsidiary that led to the deaths of more than 100 people. During the investigation of the matter, information came to light suggesting that the company had deliberately misled regulators about the hazards.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-20-mn-6381-story.html
Pfizer also inherited safety and other legal controversies through its big acquisitions, including a class action suit over Warner-Lambert’s Rezulin diabetes medication;
https://www.yourlawyer.com/defective-drugs/rezulin-suit-settled-trial/
a big settlement over PCB dumping by Pharmacia,
https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/Monsanto-Settlement.pdf
and thousands of lawsuits brought by users of Wyeth’s diet drugs.
https://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/07D1351P.pdf
Also on Pfizer’s list of scandals are a 2012 bribery settlement;
According to a CNN Money report in 2012;
“Pfizer (paid) roughly $45 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that the company, along with fellow pharmaceutical firm Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired a few years ago, violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
“The SEC says staff from the companies' subsidiaries paid bribes to foreign government officials to boost sales and obtain regulatory approvals. The violations occurred in Bulgaria, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia and Serbia, the SEC said.
Pfizer also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, agreeing to pay a $15 million penalty.
"Corrupt pay-offs to foreign officials in order to secure lucrative contracts creates an inherently uneven marketplace and puts honest companies at a disadvantage," James McJunkin of the FBI's Washington field office said in a statement.
“In China, for example, Pfizer employees rewarded government doctors who prescribed large amounts of the company's drugs by inviting them to meetings with "extensive recreational and entertainment activities," the SEC said. In Croatia, the agency said, government doctors received a portion of the proceeds from Pfizer's drug sales to the doctors' own institutions.”
https://money.cnn.com/2012/08/07/news/companies/pfizer-bribery-charges/index.htm
Pfizer has also been found guilty of massive tax avoidance and fought lawsuits alleging that during a meningitis epidemic in Nigeria in the 1990s the company tested a risky new drug on children without consent from their parents.
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