Pfizer must pay $2.3 billion to settle drug-promotion case – MedCity Morning Read, Sept. 3, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Drug maker Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. will pay a record $2.3 billion in a settlement of criminal and civil charges relating to the illegal promotion of certain medicines, including the painkiller Bextra, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Pharmacia & Upjohn Company also will plead guilty to violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for “misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead,” according to the announcement. The Justice Department stated that the company marketed Bextra for uses and dosages that the Food and Drug Administration never approved.

The Associated Press reported that the criminal case applied only to Bextra, which Pfizer withdrew from the market in 2005 amid safety concerns.

The total settlement includes a criminal fine of $1.195 billion – the largest criminal fine of any kind ever imposed – and a $105 million forfeiture. In addition, Pfizer will pay $1 billion in civil penalties. Those are related to the promotion of Bextra, the epilepsy treatment Lyrica, the antipsychotic medicine Geodon and the antibiotic Zyvox, according to the Justice Department.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that an Upper Arlington man is one of six corporate whistleblowers who prompted the investigation and will share $102 million of the settlement money.

Meanwhile, 49 states and the District of Columbia will claim a portion of the civil payments, according to agreements with each state’s Medicaid division, Pfizer said in a press release. Ohio’s share will be $32 million, state Attorney General Richard Cordray announced Wednesday.

The Pfizer statement noted that the company “previously disclosed a related $2.3 billion charge to its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 earnings in connection with the DOJ agreement in principle on January 26, 2009. No additional charge to the company’s earnings will be recorded in connection with this settlement.”

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