Glaxo Agrees to Pay $3 Billion in Fraud Settlement

[ElNono]

Excerpts from the article. Link to the full thing at the bottom...

In the largest settlement involving a pharmaceutical company, the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay $3 billion in fines for promoting its best-selling antidepressants for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a top diabetes drug, federal prosecutors announced Monday. The agreement also includes civil penalties for improper marketing of a half-dozen other drugs.

No individuals have been charged in any of the cases. Even so, the Justice Department contends the prosecutions are well worth the effort — reaping more than $15 in recoveries for every $1 it spends, by one estimate.

But critics argue that even large fines are not enough to deter drug companies from unlawful behavior. Only when prosecutors single out individual executives for punishment, they say, will practices begin to change.

Prosecutors said the company had tried to win over doctors by paying for trips to Jamaica and Bermuda, as well as spa treatments and hunting excursions. In the case of Paxil, prosecutors claim GlaxoSmithKline employed several tactics aimed at promoting the use of the drug in children, including helping to publish a medical journal article that misreported data from a clinical trial.

Part of the civil settlement also includes claims that the company overcharged the government for drugs. Glaxo did not admit any wrongdoing in the civil settlement.

Despite the large amount, $3 billion represents only a portion of what Glaxo made on the drugs. Avandia, for example, racked up $10.4 billion in sales, Paxil brought in $11.6 billion, and Wellbutrin sales were $5.9 billion during the years covered by the settlement, according to IMS Health, a data group that consults for drugmakers.

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[Winehole23]

it's amazing the bas s ever get caught. of course, only the fictional person takes the hit...

[Winehole23]

for adverse health impacts on tens of thousands, due to fraud and selective non-disclosure

[Wild Cobra]

Excerpts from the article. Link to the full thing at the bottom...









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Sounds like the same the AGW community does.

[boutons_deux]

BigPharma is deeply corrupt, and corrupts the cooperating greedy docs and pharmacies.

Will Congress pass laws, regulations, rules to stop it?

Provide funds policing and enforcement? "We're broke", and "Freedom!", and "Govt is the problem", so 100Ks are maimed and killed, for years and years.

America is ed and un able.

[ElNono]

it's amazing the bas s ever get caught. of course, only the fictional person takes the hit...

for adverse health impacts on tens of thousands, due to fraud and selective non-disclosure

Then people wonder why healthcare is so expensive in the US? Corps spending billions on BS marketing, overcharging, paying for recreational trips to doctors who then prescribe the more expensive drug... that all gets passed to patients.