Have you heard the news that Pfizer paid the largest criminal fine in history? If so, you may wonder how much and of course the reason why this company needed to pay the criminal fine. For your information, Pfizer is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation and it develops and produces medicines and vaccines for oncology, immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology.
The Reasons Why Pfizer Paid the Largest Criminal Fine in History
According to The Scotsman site, Pfizer needed to pay the fine by US regulators after it was found to have engaged in fraud by mispromoting painkiller, Bextra, which now has been withdrawn. Pfizer pleaded guilty because the company advertised the medication for ‘off-label’ purposes which were not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
So, how much was the criminal fine that must be paid by Pfizer? This company had to pay a criminal fine of £1.7 billion or $2.3 billion. This criminal fine was levied against Pfizer in 2009.
In 2005, Bextra, which is an anti-inflammatory drug, was pulled by Pfizer from the market. However, this company had promoted it for uses and dosages which had been specifically declined by FDA following safety concerns over the medication.
For your information, under the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a company needs to specify the intended uses of a product to FDA in its new drug application. And then, after it is approved, as explained on the United States Department of Justice site, the drug may not be marketed or promoted for so-called “off-label” uses, namely any use not specified in an application and approved by FDA.
On the United States Department of Justice site, it is also explained that Pfizer has also agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs including Bextra; Geodon, an antipsychotic drug; Zyvox, which is an antibiotic; and Lyrica which is an anti-epileptic drug and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and not covered by the programs.
The Other Companies That Paid the Largest Criminal Fine in History
Pfizer is not the only company that paid the largest criminal fine in history. Actually, there are some other companies that were also categorized into companies that paid the largest criminal fine in history. And even, Pfizer is not the company that paid the largest criminal fine because there are other companies that paid larger criminal fines than Pfizer.
As explained on The Scotsman, Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Co) was ordered to pay £330 billion in compensation to victims of 2011’s Fukushima disaster. There was a dramatic triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan and it was part of the devastating aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. It became the most severe nuclear disaster since Chernobyl’s catastrophic nuclear meltdown in 1986.
On The Scotsman, it is also explained that after an investigation into the Fukushima disaster, there were three Tepco chief executives who were initially charged with failing to ensure that safety requirements were met. And then, the three Tepco executives were cleared of negligence for the disaster. However, the Tepco company had still been forced to pay more than £300 billion in compensation to victims.
Is there another company that paid the largest criminal fine in history? Besides Pfizer and Tepco, there is also oil giant British Petroleum (BP). This company was charged with an initial criminal fine of £2.8 billion in 2012 because of its central role in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The costly compensation process lifted the bill to £47 billion. The incident which happened in 2010 became one of the worst environmental disasters of all time where there were 11 victims who passed away and a criminal fine from US regulators of $4.5 billion. Buzzfeed revealed that British Petroleum just paid $25 million to Mexico in compensation for the incident.
There is also the Bank of America that has paid an estimated $82.7 billion since 2000 according to data collected by Diggity Marketing, and this company also paid £11 billion in damages because it had a role in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and financial crash.
Industries That Pay The Largest Fines
According to Diggity Marketing as also explained on The Scotsman, the industry which is responsible for the most fines to date is financial services. As of February 2021, as explained on The Scotsman site, the sector including payment providers and banks had noted fines of $331,558,339,161 across more than 6,000 fines in total.
How about the pharmaceutical industry? This industry followed behind with 944 fines where the total was over $56 billion. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry was in the third rank with fines of around $45 billion.
So, from all companies that paid the most fines until now, the Bank of America was at the top of the chart and JPMorgan Chase was at the second place where it paid more than $35 billion in fines.
About Pfizer Company
Pfizer is a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation from America. This company is headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. In 1849, the company was established in New York by two German immigrants named Charles Pfizer and his cousin named Charles F. Erhart.
Medicines and vaccines for cardiology, immunology, oncology, endocrinology, and neurology are developed and produced by Pfizer. This company also has some blockbuster drugs or products that each produce more than US$1 billion in annual revenues. As explained on Wikipedia, in 2020, 52% of the revenue of the company came from the United States, 36% came from other countries and 6% came from each of China and Japan.
This company has developed and launched some products to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. The products that have been developed by this company for Covid-19 are Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and Paxlovid.
In March 2020, this company joined the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator funding vehicle where the aim is to expedite development of treatments against Covid-19. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the $125 million initiative in partnership with Mastercard and Wellcome Trust. And then, the additional funding was announced shortly after from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Madonna.
That’s all the information about Pfizer according to Wikipedia and if you want to know more about Pfizer company, you are able to access Wikipedia or other trusted sources.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
