GlaxoSmithKline Pleads Guilty To Illegal Drug Marketing; Fined $3 Billion

[jimmy olsen]

Now that's a fine!

http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/07/glaxosmithkline-pleads-guilty-illegal-drug-marketing-to-pay-3b-fine/

GlaxoSmithKline Pleads Guilty illegal Drug Marketing, to Pay $3B Fine
July 2, 2012
By Tabinda Hussain

The biggest player of the pharmaceutical industry, GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK), makes the biggest settlement of healthcare fraud in US trial history. This brings an end to a long-running case against the pharmaceutical giant that was under investigation for many years now. FDA, FBI and Department of Health and Human Services had been probing the matter.

The drugs that the company is paying a huge price for are called Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia. While Paxil and Wellbutrin are antidepressants and the criminal charges are 'misbranding', GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK) faced allegations of misrepresenting the drug safety data, in case of Avandia. The settlement includes a payment of $1billion to compensate for criminal fraud and $2billion for civil liabilities such as the pricing fraud surrounding all three above mentioned drugs. The many complaints filed in the US vs GSK lawsuit were:

    GSK failed to quote safety data on Avandia when the company clearly knew that its use could elevate risk of heart failure.
    Paxil was illegally promoted to patients under 18 when the drug wasn't approved for this age group.
    The U.S.  court also alleged that the company published and distributed a misleading content in medical journals and grossly misrepresented the drug's efficacy.
    GSK sponsored doctors with payments, lavish parties and other luxuries to promote the prescription of Wellbutrin.

The CEO of GSK, Andrew Witty was quoted as saying in a company post-settlement statement, ""Today brings to resolution difficult, long-standing matters for GSK, Whilst these originate in a different era for the company, they cannot and will not be ignored. On behalf of GSK, I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made."

GSK made the largest pay-off but it is certainly not the only one, previously Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) have paid $2.3 billion and $1.4 billion in separate settlements.

[Capetan Mihali]

  I know fellows who pleaded guilty to illegal drug marketing and got 70 to 84 months...

[CountDeMoney]

  I know fellows who pleaded guilty to illegal drug marketing and got 70 to 84 months...

It's different when it's a corporation, though.  Since corporations are people, the other people inside them never have to go to jail.

[Eddie Teach]

    Paxil was illegally promoted to patients under 18 when the drug wasn't approved for this age group.
   

I took Paxil as a teenager. Where's my cut?

[Tonitrus]

  I know fellows who pleaded guilty to illegal drug marketing and got 70 to 84 months...

It's different when it's a corporation, though.  Since corporations are people, the other people inside them never have to go to jail.

We should have the reverse logic...if corporations are people, then when guilty of a crime, send everyone who works for the corporation to a penal camp.

[garbon]

Sure, Seedster, let's try for a world without pharmaceuticals.

[CountDeMoney]

Sure, Seedster, let's try for a world without pharmaceuticals.

How's this for a fucking change; sending assfucks from corporations to jail, instead of taking their money in exchange of a waiver of civil liability and immunity from prosecution so they can do it all over again sometime? How bout that, you fucking hack?

[Syt]

Avandia coming up again, eh? My former employer conducted much of the Phase III trial for GSK. I think the official corporate line was, "We only collected the data, we didn't interpret it."

[garbon]

Sure, Seedster, let's try for a world without pharmaceuticals.

How's this for a fucking change; sending assfucks from corporations to jail, instead of taking their money in exchange of a waiver of civil liability and immunity from prosecution so they can do it all over again sometime? How bout that, you fucking hack?

What's interesting is how quick you are to side with the morass of an organization that is the FDA.  Not surprising though, you seem to have some hard-on for government agencies as if the talentless fucks that suck on the government teat do so out of altruism.

Quite frankly if there is an off-label drug that would help me if I'm someday suffering from a malady, I'm glad that someone gets the word out there given that off-label might just mean that the FDA didn't like the formatting of the document that presented the clinical trial results.

Now is it right for companies to end-run around the rules that they say they will abide by - certainly not. But it's hardly surprising that some people may take that upon themselves when dealing with a hostile public that is yet all to happy to lap up drugs that help them - regardless of an indication...as well as dealing with the bloated bureaucratic organ that is the FDA.

[garbon]

Side note - Wellbutrin:

[Capetan Mihali]

What's wrong with Wellbutrin?

[garbon]

What's wrong with Wellbutrin?

While it's a common intro drug - it can also have some jarring side effects...especially the withdrawal!

[Razgovory]

Sure, Seedster, let's try for a world without pharmaceuticals.

How's this for a fucking change; sending assfucks from corporations to jail, instead of taking their money in exchange of a waiver of civil liability and immunity from prosecution so they can do it all over again sometime? How bout that, you fucking hack?

Cause he was one of those assfucks, that's why.  It was true 100 years ago, it's still true today. 

CORPORATION, n.
    An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/c.html

[CountDeMoney]

How's this for a fucking change; sending assfucks from corporations to jail, instead of taking their money in exchange of a waiver of civil liability and immunity from prosecution so they can do it all over again sometime? How bout that, you fucking hack?

What's interesting is how quick you are to side with the morass of an organization that is the FDA.  Not surprising though, you seem to have some hard-on for government agencies as if the talentless fucks that suck on the government teat do so out of altruism.

At least the FDA is a government agency, answerable to elected officials, who also happen to be answerable to us.

Now is it right for companies to end-run around the rules that they say they will abide by - certainly not. But it's hardly surprising that some people may take that upon themselves when dealing with a hostile public that is yet all to happy to lap up drugs that help them - regardless of an indication...as well as dealing with the bloated bureaucratic organ that is the FDA.

More prosecution, less Mickey Mouse fines with waivers from civil and criminal liability. 
That's the only way the private sector, from Wellbutrin to Wall Street, will ever learn to Do The Right Thing.  The private sector will never willingly do it, institutional morality forever cockblocked by greed, so the only credible alternative is government regulation combined with the very real threat of going to Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison.

[Martinus]

The thread title is quite misleading, considering it was the marketing that was illegal, not the drugs.