At one time, used car salesmen were down near the bottom of the ladder of respect and reputation. But now that automobile sales are scraping bottom, people are actually feeling sorry for the poor guys.
Bankers and Wall Street power brokers have taken their place on the scum scale. But despite al the abuses—the bad judgment and the big bonuses—there has been relatively little illegal activity revealed.
Pharmaceutical industry big wigs, on the other hand, have not gotten much public scrutiny. These executives have largely escaped criticism despite decisions that have been unethical at best and in many cases downright illegal. What’s worse, despite stiff fines, many drug companies are repeat offenders.
In recent weeks, drug giant Pfizer agreed to pay a record-breaking settlement of $2.3 billion. The federal government has been investigating whether the company marketed its painkiller Bextra for purposes the FDA had not approved. Such “off-label” promotion is against the law.
Earlier, Pfizer agreed to pay nearly $900 million for personal injury lawsuits brought against it for heart attacks and strokes attributed to Bextra and Celebrex and for claims from state attorneys general and consumer fraud cases.
This isn’t the first time Pfizer has had to pay big fines. Back in 2004 the justice department exacted $430 million in penalties from the company’s subsidiary, Warner-Lambert. That company had been promoting the epilepsy medicine Neurontin for migraine headaches, bipolar disorder and other off-label uses. The company pled guilty to two felonies related to fraudulent promotion and promised to clean up its act so that such violations would not happen again.
Pfizer isn’t the only drug company paying out huge settlements. Eli Lilly has agreed to pay $1.4 billion for off-label promotion of its schizophrenia drug Zyprexa. Acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid commented, “Eli Lilly completely ignored the law.”
Sales representatives were encouraging doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for problems such as bipolar disorder and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, although the company did not have FDA approval for those uses. Such drugs increase the risk of heart attacks, especially in frail, elderly people with dementia (Lancet Neurology, Feb. 2009).
Another drug giant, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), has been charged with fraud. They have had to settle legal claims for overcharging Medicare and Medicaid. They have also settled charges of illegal marketing and withholding negative information on some of their medications, notably the antidepressant Paxil.
In 2006, GSK paid the IRS $3.4 billion to resolve a tax dispute. It was the largest fine levied by the IRS to that point in history. The company may soon have to pay a new fine of $400 million as a result of a separate federal investigation into illegal marketing and promotional practices.
Other pharmaceutical firms that have had to pay huge fines for misconduct include Schering-Plough, Bayer, Merck, Abbott and Astra-Zeneca. In an industry that is supposed to be putting patients first, it seems that executives are sometimes willing to break the law in order to improve profits. Perhaps they deserve to take their place in public esteem somewhere south of bankers, Wall Street whiz kids and used car salesmen.
