More Gigantic Fines for Drug Companies

It is almost boring. The pharmaceutical giant Abbott was forced to pay $1.6 billion (with a “b”) for improperly marketing its nerve drug Depakote®. And just what is improper marketing? It is marketing the drug for conditions for which it was never tested (off-label uses). In this case, it was marketed to treat schizophrenia, dementia, and autism, instead of its tested use for epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and migraines.

And just how does the drug maker do this? It trained its salespeople to go after nursing home directors, geriatric doctors, and long-term care providers. It gave kickbacks to doctors and fraudulently charged Medicare and Medicaid.1

Stop the Presses

In the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay $3 billion!!! And they will plead guilty to failure to disclose safety information that might prove detrimental to drug sales, as well as promoting two drugs for unapproved uses. This is the largest penalty ever paid by a drug company.

And how did this company do it? With the same tried and true techniques. They provided doctors with expensive resort vacations, European hunting trips, high-paid speaking tours, and even tickets to a Madonna concert – all to sell drugs.2

Ho hum – just another day in the sordid world of Big Pharma. This settlement — $3 billion -• leaves even me breathless. There is just no end to it all.

NOTES

1 Chicago Tribune, May 7, 2012

2 “GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3 billion for health fraud,” Associated Press, Washington, July 3, 2012.