Public Citizen’s Dr. Sidney Wolfe calls off-label marketing of Zyprexa part of well-organized crime in the US

“The US pharmaceutical industry, long one of the most profitable in the country with profits last year of close to $50 billion, has engaged in an unprecedented amount of criminal activity in the past decade, all aimed at increasing sales, often by illegally promoting drugs for diseases for which evidence that benefits outweigh harm is lacking – also known as illegal off-label promotion,” says Dr Wolfe.

Lynne Taylor
Pharma Times
September 9, 2009

The pharmaceutical industry has made major contributions to the health of the US public, but it must also be considered part of the nation’s well-organized crime, says an industry critic.

Last week’s $2.3 billion settlement between Pfizer and the US Justice Department for unlawful prescription drug promotion may sound large, but it is not enough to ensure drug companies will curb their bad behavior – in fact, it just shows there is competition in the pharmaceutical industry, according to Sidney Wolfe, director of US advocacy group Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.

Pfizer has broken a record set by Eli Lilly in January for what was then described by the Justice Department as the “largest individual corporate criminal fine” in U.S. history – more than $500 million in criminal penalties for off-label promotion of Zyprexa (olanzapine), its treatment for psychotic conditions including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – but now, just seven months later, Pfizer has broken this record with a criminal fine of $1.2 billion, the largest ever imposed in the US for any matter, he says. The rest of the $2.3 billion represents civil penalties.

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