by Natural News
(Natural News) In Sept. 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations levied against the Big Pharma company for illegally marketing its arthritis drug for unapproved off-label use.
"The $2.3 billion fine was, at the time, the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice. The fine included a criminal fine of $1.195 billion paid by Pfizer. At the time, it was the largest criminal fine ever imposed for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn also agreed to forfeit $105 million, pushing the total criminal resolution to $1.3 billion.
In addition to this, Pfizer agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve civil allegations under the False Claims Act for illegally promoting Bextra and three other drugs – Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug."
[Isn't it amazing that NOBODY AT PFIZER went to jail in the biggest fraud settlement in DOJ history? - ED ]
The drug in question is Bextra, known by its generic name valdecoxib. Bextra was manufactured primarily … [Read More...]