10/28/2002

Pfizer to Pay $49 Million in Fraud Case

http://www.nytimes.com/ads/veripop.html

By REUTERS

Amazing!!! Pfizer to sign a five year "corporate integrity" agreement?!! If we handled the criminal system the same way can you imagine what would happen to this country? "You can feel safe even if your neighbor is a mass murderer, because he has signed an agreement that he will not reoffend for the next X number of years." RIGHT!!
Ann

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 —Pfizer has agreed to pay $49 million to settle charges that a subsidiary defrauded the Medicaid program by overcharging for the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, the Justice Department said today.

Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, requires drug makers to pay quarterly rebates to states to account for discounts drug companies give to favored customers.

Parke-Davis Labs was accused of overstating the best price for Lipitor in the first and second quarters of 1999 by concealing $250,000 in discounts to a managed care customer in Louisiana, the Justice Department said.

Parke-Davis was acquired by Pfizer in 2000 when it bought Warner-Lambert. Lipitor had sales of $6.45 billion in 2001.

The Justice Department said the unreported discounts allowed Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert to retain more than $20 million in rebates owed to Medicaid.

The Lipitor accusations stem from a lawsuit brought by a former Warner-Lambert employee. The government has said that it will not pursue other accusations in the lawsuit involving payments to five other health plans and two pharmacy benefit managers, a Pfizer statement said.

In addition to the payment, the Justice Department said that Pfizer agreed to a five-year corporate integrity agreement intended to prevent problems.

"We are pleased to bring this legacy Warner-Lambert matter to a conclusion," said Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer's general counsel.