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Pfizer to pay record $2.3B penalty over promotions | AP | 09/02/2009
That is a staggering sum of money for a corporation. To give an idea of just how much money that is, Pfizer's net income in 2008 was only $8.1 billion. Still, they deserve it. Bribing doctors to hoc their products constitutes a clear conflict of interest, and **** like this is a big part of why some illnesses are overtreated or mistreated.
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines Wednesday and called the world's largest drug maker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets.
Announcing the penalty as a warning to all drug manufacturers, Justice Department officials said the overall settlement is the largest ever paid by a drug company for alleged violations of federal drug rules, and the $1.2 billion criminal fine is the largest ever in any U.S. criminal case. The total includes $1 billion in civil penalties and a $100 million criminal forfeiture.
That is a staggering sum of money for a corporation. To give an idea of just how much money that is, Pfizer's net income in 2008 was only $8.1 billion. Still, they deserve it. Bribing doctors to hoc their products constitutes a clear conflict of interest, and **** like this is a big part of why some illnesses are overtreated or mistreated.