Last week the Obama Administration levied a fine on pharmaceutical juggernaut Pfizer Inc., for $2.3 billion for the company's illegal promotion practices of its painkiller, Bextra.
The company was also slapped for its misleading representation of a number of medicines. Its subsidiary Pharmacia and Upjohn Co., will also have to plead guilty to violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for its promotion of Bextra, according to the New York Times.
This is great news, but only a stepping-stone toward making sure companies like Pfizer and Eli Lilly stay within the law. But as vast a sum as $2.3 billion may seem to the average individual trying to scrape by in this world, it is chump change to Pfizer and its ilk. Pfizer, replete with lawyers and lobbyists, will continue to move forward and will not change lest it lose favor with shareholders.
What may really change the way the game is played is if doctors stop prescribing the bogus stuff and change their way of thinking. Instead of telling patients to say ahh and then absentmindedly prescribe 100 milligrams of Bextra, they should encourage patients to consider preventive measures, such as exercise or a change of diet. Doctors have quite literally become drug dealers for pharmaceutical companies, companies whose sole objective is to please said shareholders. But doctors would stop immediately if the Justice Department started slapping them with fines for dealing phony drugs. And in the process, patients may learn to take more responsibility for the way they live their lives instead of relying on a pill.[[In-content Ad]]
