MEDICAL CRIME SCENE: Big Pharma companies have paid $33B in financial penalties for their illegal activities

09/19/2024 / By Ava Grace

A 2020 peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which studied both the type of illegal activity and financial penalties imposed on Big Pharma companies between the years 2003 and 2016, has found that 85 percent (22 of 26) of them received financial penalties for illegal activities. They were penalized a combined $33 billion.

The illegal activities included manufacturing and distributing adulterated drugs, misleading marketing, failure to disclose negative information about a product (i.e. significant side effects including death), bribery to foreign officials, fraudulently delaying market entry of competitors, pricing and financial violations and kickbacks. (Related: Follow the money: Most young doctors are financially enslaved by the drug industry, and it’s destroying American healthcare.)

The biggest overall fines have been paid by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (almost $10 billion), Pfizer ($2.9 billion), Johnson & Johnson ($2.6 billion) and other familiar names, including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Merck, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Sanofi Aventis and Wyeth. The study further indicated that many Big Pharma players are repeat offenders.

Taking on Big Pharma is no easy feat

Drug cases can drag on for years, and financial resources are needed to get a favorable verdict. Worse, if a case is won – Big Pharma brings the case to a higher court.

One example is Pfizer’s $35 million settlement after 15 years of legal maneuvering in a Nigerian case. The suit alleged the company had experimented on 200 children without their parent’s knowledge or consent.

Occasionally there is a case that lifts the lid on these corporate strategies, revealing the influence of pharmaceutical companies and the lengths they are willing to go to, to turn a profit. The Australian Federal Court case Peterson v. Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD), involving the manufacturer of the drug Vioxx, is another example.

Vioxx was launched in 1999 and was used by up to 80 million people worldwide, marketed as a safer alternative to traditional anti-inflammatory drugs with their troublesome gastrointestinal side effects.

Peterson argued that the Merck companies were negligent in not having withdrawn the drug from the market earlier than they did in 2004. By not warning of the risks and making promotional representations to doctors, they were guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct under the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act 1974.

According to Graham, before the approval of the drug, a Merck-funded study showed a seven-fold increase in heart attacks. Despite this, the drug was approved by regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia.

In 2013, a settlement was reached with class action participants, which resulted in a mere maximum payment of $4,629.36 per claimant. MSD waived its claim for legal costs against Peterson.

The pharma giant allegedly sponsored journals with renowned scientific publisher Elsevier, including a publication called the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine. These journals were made to look like independent scientific journals but allegedly contained articles attributed to doctors that were ghostwritten by Merck employees. The company made over $2 billion per year in sales before Vioxx was finally pulled from pharmacy shelves in 2004.

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Watch as former President Donald Trump vows to investigate and hold Big Pharma accountable for defrauding patients and taxpayers.

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