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Pfizer to Pay Record $2.3B for Illegal Prescription Drug Promotions

09/03/2009 - Allen Murphy Law - Link to This Entry

In the largest criminal fine in history, Pfizer will pay a total of $2.3 billion settlement for unlawful prescription drug promotions. Included in the total is a $1.2 billion criminal fine, which is the largest criminal fine in U.S. history.

The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday the amount of the settlement. Pfizer was charged with illegally marketing Bextra, a pain medication, along with the anti-psychotic drug Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and Lyrica, which is an anti-epileptic medication. The company promoted the drugs for uses other than what they were approved for by the Food & Drug Administration.

It is not illegal for a doctor to prescribe a drug for an unapproved use, but federal law prohibits a manufacturer from promoting a drug for uses not approved by the FDA. The company also allegedly made illegal payments to health care professionals and doctors, bribing them to use, promote and prescribe a number of drugs.

Almost $1 billion of the settlement will be returned to the U.S. government, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as a number of states. Whistleblower lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act that are pending in the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of Kentucky triggered this investigation. As a part of today’s resolution, six whistleblowers will receive payments totaling more than $102 million from the federal share of the civil recovery.

 The U.S. Attorney’s offices for the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Eastern District of Kentucky, and the Civil Division of the Department of Justice handled these cases. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts led the criminal investigation of Bextra. The investigation was conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Office of Criminal Investigations for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Veterans’ Administration’s (VA) Office of Criminal Investigations, the Office of the Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Postal Service (USPS), the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units and the offices of various state Attorneys General.

The settlement is based on nine whistle-blower (Qui Tam) cases that were filed around the country, and it marks the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice. To view the complete story, please click here.

Allen & Murphy Law handles a variety of consumer fraud cases, including those involving prescription drugs. Our Orlando personal injury and commercial litigation attorneys also work with clients involved in whistle-blower cases and Qui Tam cases. For more information about our practice or if you have a question about a potential case, please contact us.