But Pfizer's latest marketing trick beats anything described above. According to Bloomberg News on August 24. 2006, Pfizer said that it had increased second-quarter revenue from Lipitor by persuading doctors to prescribe higher doses of the drug.
Pfizer says it sent thousands of sales people to doctors' offices to tout studies showing that higher doses cut the risks of heart attack, stroke and death, better than other cholesterol drugs.
As a result of selling more of the higher priced pills, Lipitor revenue increased by 2% to $3.1 billion in the second quarter, even though about the same number of patients took the drug, according to Pfizer.
Some heart experts say that the company's promotion may spur doctors to prescribe higher doses for everyone, even though the majority of patients do not need them, according to Steven Findlay, an analyst for Consumers Union, a nonprofit company that publishes Consumer Reports magazine.
To give this story a happy ending that indicates drug makers can not keep getting away with murder forever, its worth noting that on March 28, 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors were reviewing Pfizer's alleged off-label marketing "because of the billions of dollars spent on Lipitor every year by Medicaid and the states."
On the same day that the Journal ran its article, Pfizer acknowledged to CNN Moneyline, that an investigation had been initiated against the company by the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York, reportedly because of marketing practices.
Information for injured parties can be found at Lawyers and Settlement.com
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/lipitor.html
Evelyn Pringle
evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
