INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana will receive nearly $3.7 million out of the record $2.3 billion civil and criminal penalty to be paid by Pfizer Inc. for its unlawful prescription drug promotions.
Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, agreed to pay $1 billion in civil damages as compensation to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal and state healthcare programs harmed by the company's conduct. Indiana's Medicaid program will receive a settlement of $3,694,888.19, Attorney General Greg Zoller said.
Pfizer will also pay the largest criminal fine in U.S. history -- $1.2 billion, as well as criminal forfeiture of $105 million. This is Pfizer's fourth such settlement in the past decade.
To promote its drugs, authorities said Pfizer invited doctors to meetings at resort locations, paying expenses and providing perks such as golf, massages and other activities.
Zoller said whistleblowers from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Kentucky were essential to the outcome.
"This case highlights the importance of qui tam laws that allow whistleblowers to file suit on behalf of the government to recover public funds paid on false claims," Zoeller said.
"Our office will work aggressively with employees in whistleblower cases to unearth fraud against the public treasury and recoup funds on behalf of taxpayers."
Allen Pope, director of the Indiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, said cases like this are why the Indiana General Assembly approved a whistleblower False Claims Act.
"Nine whistleblowers, insiders who knew what Pfizer was doing, are sharing a substantial financial reward for their help in calling the government's attention to this illegal activity," Pope said.
The whistleblowers will split more than $100 million of the settlement.
The government said Pfizer promoted four prescription drugs, including the pain killer Bextra, as treatments for medical conditions different from those the drugs had been approved for by federal regulators. Use of drugs for so-called "off-label" medical conditions is common, but drug manufacturers are prohibited from marketing drugs for uses that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Bextra, one of a class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, was pulled from the U.S. market in 2005 amid mounting evidence it raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and death. A Pfizer subsidiary, Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc., which was acquired in 2003, has entered an agreement to plead guilty to one count of felony misbranding. The criminal case applied only to Bextra.
The $1 billion in civil penalties was related to Bextra and a number of other medicines
"The illegal practices did not involve Indiana in any unique way; Indiana physicians apparently were targeted with the same off-label marketing as doctors in every other state," Zoeller said. "This illegal practice increased the quantity of drugs that Medicaid - and ultimately the taxpayers - ended up paying for."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
