Washington Post Record Penalty In Improper-Marketing Case

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" Record Penalty In Improper-Marketing Case "

Well there is a real shocker! You mean to tell me that improper marketing

has played a key role in US health policies/physicians' practices in

recent years? I have a letter from Kathleen Sebelius, June 2009, complimenting

me on my understanding of this concept after I explained to her in detail

about ACOEM, the US Chamber, mold and the dark side of " evidence based "

medicine.

I would propose that the following article is NOT about the biggest fraud

in marketing over medical science. It is the third biggest that is trumped

by the mold issue and the tobacco issue. If they can do this for the

third biggest, they also need to act on the mold issue.

_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR200909020

1449.html_

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090201449\

..html)

In Settlement, A Warning To Drugmakers

Pfizer to Pay Record Penalty In Improper-Marketing Case

By _ _

(http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/carrie+johnson/)

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Obama administration intensified its public campaign against

health-care fraud Wednesday, putting drugmakers on notice that they will be

forced to

atone for improper marketing practices as prosecutors unveiled a record

$2.3 billion settlement with Pfizer.

Officials at the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services

called the agreement with Pfizer and one of its subsidiaries a cautionary

example of their strategy to team up with states to police errant health-care

businesses.

The Pfizer unit Pharmacia & Upjohn pleaded guilty to a single felony

charge that accused the company of marketing its anti-inflammatory drug Bextra

for broader uses and higher dosages than those approved by the Food and Drug

Administration.

The company allegedly enticed doctors to prescribe the drug for pain relief

by taking them on lavish trips, created sham requests for medical

information as an excuse to send unsolicited advertising materials to

physicians,

and drafted articles promoting the pills without disclosing its role in

preparing the stories.

In connection with the settlement, Pharmacia & Upjohn consented to pay

$1.3 billion in fines and forfeiture, the biggest criminal penalty ever imposed

in the United States, prosecutors said. Pfizer paid an additional $1

billion to state and federal authorities to resolve civil allegations of

improper marketing over Bextra and three more drugs: Geodon, an antipsychotic

medicine; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an epilepsy medicine. In the bulk

of the civil allegations, the company did not admit wrongdoing.

The settlement comes as federal agencies pursue a wider strategy to target

wrongdoing in the deep-pocketed health-care industry.

Earlier this year, Justice and HHS deployed a task force of prosecutors and

federal agents to bring criminal charges against the ringleaders of small

groups that had bilked Medicare and Medicaid out of hundreds of millions of

dollars through schemes involving wheelchairs, medical equipment and

costly HIV/AIDS treatments. Authorities have rolled out dozens of indictments

over the past several months in Miami, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles.

The Justice Department's civil division, led by Tony West, also has pledged

to devote more attention to whistleblowers at drug companies and insurance

firms who flag improper payments and marketing schemes. The department is

on track this fiscal year to collect more than $3 billion in False Claims

Act cases; most of the money will go back to the U.S. Treasury.

The announcement yesterday came amid the escalating political debate on

health-care reform, which hinges in part on concerns over the ballooning costs

of medical care and prescription drugs.

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli called the Pfizer case " an example

of the department's ongoing and intensive efforts to protect the American

public " from fraud and abuse, which costs the Treasury billions of dollars a

year. The bulk of the investigation was conducted under the Bush

administration, which also began negotiating with the company on a settlement.

Mike Loucks, the acting U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, said that, in

negotiating the financial penalties, authorities considered Pfizer's

" recidivist " history. The world's largest drugmaker, he said, has entered into

four

settlements with the Justice Department over the past decade. Pfizer

voluntarily withdrew Bextra from the market in 2005 amid concerns about its link

to such health problems as strokes, heart attacks and blood clots in the

lungs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said her department's

inspector general will heighten scrutiny of the company to make sure it

does not run afoul of the law......