Pfizer's $2.3 billion settlement announced last month by the US Department of Justice, for fraudulent marketing of Bextra, Geodon, Lyrica and Zyvox inducts the world's biggest drug maker into the pharma Three-Peat Hall of Fame.
It's only been five years since Pfizer agreed to pay $430 million for seizure drug Neurontin abuses and entered into a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA), a trust-but-verify arrangement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2004.
And it's only been seven years since Pfizer agreed to pay $49 million to settle charges it defrauded Medicaid by overcharging for cholesterol drug Lipitor and entered into another CIA in 2002.
Pfizer's fraud settlement for pain drug Bextra, withdrawn in 2004, antipsychotic Geodon, seizure drug Lyrica and antibiotic Zyvox is the largest pharmaceutical fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice--and the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States.
More than 10,000 postal employees on workers compensation were treated with Bextra, Geodon, Lyrica and Zyvox says Joseph Finn, Special Agent in Charge for the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General. Forty-three states will share in the givebacks.
But it's the same off-label and kickback tango---causing "false claims to be submitted to government health care programs," also known as our tax dollars--Pfizer has been charged with before.
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