GlaxoSmithKline Settles Largest Health Care Fraud Case In U.S. History

[Barbara]

2 July 2012, Huffington Post

AP *|* By JESSE J. HOLLAND

WASHINGTON (AP) — GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to promoting two popular drugs for unapproved uses and to failing to disclose important safety information on a third in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, the Justice Department said Monday.
The $3 billion fine also will be the largest penalty ever paid by a drug company, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said. The corporation also agreed to be monitored by government officials for five years to attempt to ensure the company's compliance, Cole said.
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"For far too long, we have heard that the pharmaceutical industry views these settlements merely as the cost of doing business," Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart F. Delery, head of Justice's civil division, said at the news conference. "That is why this administration is committed to using every available tool to defeat health care fraud."
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Prosecutors said GlaxoSmithKline illegally promoted the drug Paxil for treating depression in children from April 1998 to August 2003, even though the FDA never approved it for anyone under age 18. The corporation also promoted the drug Wellbutrin from January 1999 to December 2003 for weight loss, the treatment of sexual dysfunction, substance addictions and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although it was only approved for treatment of major depressive disorder.
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The drug corporation also agreed to resolve civil liability for promoting the drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal and Zofran for off-label, non-covered uses. The company also resolved accusations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe those drugs as well as the drugs Imitrex, Lotronex, Flovent and Valtrex.
"GSK's sales force bribed physicians to prescribe GSK products using every imaginable form of high priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations to paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours to a European pheasant hunt to tickets to Madonna concerts, and this is just to name a few," said Carmin M. Ortiz, U.S. attorney in Massachusetts.
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[stan]

one step more!...

[Claudius]

More and more the truth is coming out about these criminal multinational murder-companies, and more and mre people I talk to in real life feel sick of the practice of modern medicine and the money-greedy industry behind it.
I hope they will burn down to the ground one day, but at least they are slowly getting the unhonest and dangerous reputation they deserve.

[Luc]

Good news. We will be hearing about such cases more and more.

[Cosette123]

Very good news.These criminal people have to pay!

[Sheila]

Yeah, this is very encouraging! We can make it so that it isn't enormously profitable to blithely slap together chemicals and market them by carpet bombing the media. Then people might be chuted into work that is profitable (though not obscenely profitable), good for the environment, and good for humans. This is what is happening. See the Start-ups sub-forum for examples!

[Luc]

Bump to this thread. This only proves their demise is only a matter of time, and we all together here can speed it up. Let's make it happen.

[Luc]

PS Just today we had a huge headline about it in the biggest daily paper here - read by millions. The truth is getting out.

[Sheila]

This is an important point you raise, Luc. Not only does this legal decision impact GSK and influence the other drug companies, it also shapes the thinking of the citizenry. It raises consciousness. I know so many intelligent people who have *no idea* that there is any problem with the medical-pharmaceutical industry....although, I think every person in the US knows there's problems with the insurance industry! But, now *that* problem has taken a giant step toward improvement, too, thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision.

[Luc]

Not only does this legal decision impact GSK and influence the other drug companies, it also shapes the thinking of the citizenry. It raises consciousness. I know so many intelligent people who have *no idea* that there is any problem with the medical-pharmaceutical industry....although, I think every person in the US knows there's problems with the insurance industry!

This. Yesterday, I was texted by a friend here (b/c of the WD I haven't been able to meet this person for... two years now), but we still keep in touch from time to time, and I believe we will be able to meet when I have healed better). The message (it was written after my friend has seen the news on the GlaxoSmithKline fraud case on TV). It was very emotional and ran along the lines; 'From now on, there will be far less maneuvering space for the "doctors". The drugs' side effects won't be so easily put down to the "original condition".' There was some more stuff to it, but the language was very strong re: the mainstream "medicine".

Those words speak volumes.