Public Citizen's HRG slams Pfizer's $2.3 billion settlement as not enough to deter bad behaviour by Pharma

The recent $2.3 billion settlement between Pfizer and the US Justice Department for unlawful prescription drug promotion may sound large, but it is not enough to ensure drug companies will curb their bad behavior (The Pharma Letter September 3) according to Sidney Wolfe, director of arch drug industry critic Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

In fact, he said, it just shows there is competition in the pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer has broken a record just set by Eli Lilly in January for what was then described by the Justice Department as the 'largest individual corporate criminal fine' in US history (more than $500 million in criminal penalties for off-label promotion of Zyprexa; olanzapine). Now, a scant seven months later, Pfizer has broken this record with a criminal fine of $1.2 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the USA. for any matter, he stated. (The rest of the $2.3 billion represents civil penalties.)

Allegations of criminal activity

In his attack, Dr Wolfe noted that the 'US pharmaceutical industry, long one of the most profitable in the country, with profits last year of close to $50 billion, has engaged in an unprecedented amount of criminal activity in the past decade, all aimed at increasing sales, often by illegally promoting drugs for diseases for which evidence that benefits outweigh harm is lacking (also known as illegal off-label promotion). When doctors are induced, either by being bribed or misled by drug companies, to prescribe drugs for such purposes, there is a reasonable chance that the drugs will do more harm than good and patients may be seriously injured or killed by such promotion.

In addition to Pfizer and Eli Lilly (Pfizer also pleaded guilty to criminal charges for off-label promotion of Neurontin [gabapentin] in 2004), other drug companies found to have engaged in criminal activity in the past 10 years include Abbott, Schering-Plough, Astra-Zeneca, Purdue and Bayer.'

Unfortunately, he continued, the ever-escalating fines are unlikely to stop drug companies from continuing to bribe doctors because they represent just a fraction of drug company profits and no one has gone to jail.

There is no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry has made major contributions to the health of the public, he admitted, 'but it must also be considered part of well-organized crime in this country. It is not surprising that the American public understands this; in a Harris Poll last fall, only 10% of respondents thought that the pharmaceutical industry was 'generally honest and trustworthy - so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry. Until corporate titans are forced to fork over a much larger proportion of their illegally gotten profits and are put behind bars, nothing will change,' Dr Wolfe concluded.