Pfizer’s Latest: $2.3 Billion

John Kopchinski thought he had a dream job, with the giant Pfizer drug corporation.  Life looked great for the West Pointer, a Gulf War veteran, and his little boy, and his wife  pregnant with twins.  But he dared to challenge the corporation’s illegally inducing doctors to prescribe Pfizer’s drugs.  He couldn’t stomach seeing the doctors essentially bribed with free golf, massages, resort hotel trips and other forms of kickbacks, and the dangers it presented to patients. His reward for speaking out against crime?  Getting fired.

John wasn’t the lone ranger in speaking truth to power, and getting nailed for it.  David Farber had four children under six years of age.  Mark Westlock ended up without work for years.  Casey Schildhuer dealt with brain cancer to go along with his ordeal.  Together the efforts of one Pennsylvania doctor and  five Pfizer employees exposed the Medicare, Medicaid and Tri-Care fraud relating to drug sales of Lipitor (cholesterol drug), Celebrex and Bextra (anti-inflammatory drugs), Zithromax and Zyvox (antibiotics), Geodon (anti-psychotic), Norvasc (anti-hypertensive), Viagra (erectile dysfunction), Zyrtec (anti-histamine), Lyrica (anti-epileptic), Relpax (anti-migraine) and Depo-Provera (birth control).

The result was the announcement last week of the $2.3 billion healthcare fraud settlement  Pfizer agreed to pay to our federal and state governments.  The day of the announcement, Pfizer’s stock dropped a whopping $ .14 off its $16.24 price.  Pfizer also just announced that it was buying rival drug maker Wyeth for $68 billion.   The press releases I saw never bothered mentioning that Pfizer had paid a $430 million healthcare fraud settlement back in May, 2004.  It was smaller than the February, 2008 $650 million Merck health fraud settlement, and the Bristol Meyers Squib settlement for $515 million in September, 2007, but larger than the AstraZenica settlement for $335 million in June, 2003 and the Bayer Corporation settlement for $257 million in January, 2001.  These are just a sampling of the fraud settlement by the American drug industry.

Our Federal and State False Claims Acts are extremely important to nail these corporate welfare cheaters financially.  Women with little kids around this country are routinely sent to jail for collecting a couple hundred dollars more a month than they should have in welfare fraud.  Will any of these drug executives go to jail?  Extremely unlikely.

And what about all of the American citizens who are over-prescribed these drugs by doctors?  Where is the justice for them?

Remember, please, that President George Bush and the Republican Congress a few years ago made it illegal for our Medicare to negotiate with the drug corporations for better prices.  Opensecrets.org reports that Pfizer spent $13.2 million on politicians since 1990, with 70% of it to Republicans.

This fraud and politician buying is one of the main reasons why we continue to get ruthlessly gouged on drugs, and our health insurance premiums have risen so drastically.  Without a strong public plan, how can anyone realistically think we have a prayer at stopping the rip-offs?

If you are witnessing fraud on the government, contact us by calling 800-377-1812 for strictly confidential advice from experienced counsel, with no fee obligation.