Twenty-seven Years of Pharmaceutical Industry Criminal and Civil Penalties: 1991 Through 2017

[PR4NOW]

Interesting but also rather depressing. Free copy of full report available, click on 'Read Full Report', it opens a pdf. PR

citizen.org/our-work/health...

Public Citizen published a report that catalogues all major financial settlements and court judgments between pharmaceutical companies and federal and state governments from 1991 through 2017. The report found that drugmakers entered into 412 settlements totaling $38.6 billion in criminal and civil penalties, but that the number and size of federal and state settlements against the pharmaceutical industry remained low in 2016 and 2017, with federal criminal penalties nearly disappearing.

Conclusion

The number and size of federal and state settlements against the pharmaceutical industry remained low in 2016 and 2017, with federal criminal penalties nearly disappearing. Financial penalties continued to pale in comparison to company profits, with the $38.6 billion in penalties from 1991 through 2017 amounting to only 5% of the $711 billion in net profits made by the 11 largest global drug companies during just 10 of those 27 years (2003-2012).

To our knowledge, a parent company has never been excluded from participation in Medicare and Medicaid for illegal activities, which endanger the public health and deplete taxpayer-funded programs. Criminal prosecutions of executives leading companies engaged in these illegal activities have been extremely rare. Much larger penalties and successful prosecutions of company executives that oversee systemic fraud, including jail sentences if appropriate, are necessary to deter future unlawful behavior. Otherwise, these illegal but profitable activities will continue to be part of companies’ business model.

[Rapunzel]

It's pretty disgusting that we, the patients, are considered little more than collateral damage, given the risk reward axis I forget where I read that pharmas are much more powerful than governments now...how has this happened? So worried and frightened for my lovely grandchildren