Thursday, September 29, 2011

GlaxoSmithKline Admits Guilt, Pays $750 Million: Can You Trust the Drugs From Your Pharmacy or Doctor?

Drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has just settled both the civil lawsuits and criminal charges it was facing, admitting guilt and agreeing to pay $750,000,000 in settlement ($150 million alone as a criminal fee). What did GSK do? The drug company intentionally sold substandard drugs -- defective products -- to people under Medicaid and other government health plans.

And these were lots of medications, popular drugs like Avandamet and Paxil, that patients took under the assumption that they were 100% reliable. Just like you do when you buy over the counter meds at the local Miami Walmart, or when you get a prescription filled by your Florida pharmacist. We all assume these products are completely okay, right?

Meanwhile, GSK was selling drugs contaminated with bacteria; drugs with cracked coatings that made them worthless; pills that were too strong; pills that were too weak; and medications that were commingled and then sold together, in the same bottle. Scary stuff.

One Woman to Thank for Justice: Whistleblower Cheryl Eckard
None of us might ever have known about these bad acts if not for the courage of whistleblower Cheryl Eckard (who will get $96 million from GSK in settlement). She sued them in a whistleblower lawsuit back in 2004 after discovering, as part of her job for GlaxoSmithKline, that the company was violating federal drug manufacturing standards at its Puerto Rico factory.

Bad Drugs GlaxoSmithKline Was Going Ahead and Selling, Knowing They Were Bad
Even after Eckard blew the whistle, and federal investigations began, GSK blatantly continued to put profits over people. Down in the Puerto Rico plant, defective Paxil CR tablets were being made that once taken, might or might not deliver the proper drug dosage. GSK also continued to sell an antibiotic ointment, Bactroban, which was likely contaminated (disgusting, right?) and it just didn't bother to do anything about the Avandamet pills it was making, where the ingredients were not being uniformly blended during manufacture.

GlaxoSmithKline Joins Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca PLC, and Pfizer, Inc. In Knowingly Selling Defective Drugs
Eckard joins other drug company whistleblowers in receiving substantial financial compensation from the employer who terminated them after they spoke up. Last year, several whistleblowers shared in $100 million from former employer Eli Lilly when Eli Lilly entered into a $1.4 billion settlement of a criminal probe into its off-label promotion of antipsychotic Zyprexa. Interestingly, one of these Eli Lilly whistleblowers got a new job at AstraZeneca PLC, and once again blew the whistle when he discovered his new company was involved in an off-label promotion of the antipsychotic Seroquel. AstraZeneca PLC settled for $520 million back in April 2010.

A pending whistleblower suit awaits resolution, filed in 2005 against Wyeth, which was subsequently been purchased by Pfizer, Inc. -- which may make Pfizer even more liable if this results in its own violation of a corporate integrity agreement Pfizer entered into as part of its own settlement for selling bad drugs.

Pfizer paid the largest criminal fine in U.S. history ($1.3 billion) as well as a total $2.3 billion in settlement of claims into Pfizer's illegal labelling and marketing of Bextra and Lyrica, both commonly prescribed painkillers, as well as Zyvox (a popular antibiotic) and the schizophrenia drug Geodon.

So, Are The Drugs You Are Taking Safe?
Here in Miami Beach, we like to be optimistic and enjoy life. Drugs are there to help us heal, recover, deal with pain, and get moving forward. We trust and rely on our doctors and pharmacies to provide us with medications - pills, syrups, ointments - that will help us be our best.

However, with what is apparently becoming a pattern here in the United States, drug companies aren't as concerned with our best interests as their bottom line. So, if that drug your doctor prescribed or the over the counter medication you bought down at the store doesn't seem to be working - maybe it's defective. And just as whistleblowers can sue under federal law, you can sue under state defective products law.

Be careful out there.

By Bryant Esquenazi on October 28, 2010 12:46 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment