Did the US government levy a $2.3 billion fine in 2009 against Pfizer for fraud?
By Austin Tannenbaum
Copy link
Copy featured image
YES
In 2009, Pfizer Inc. was fined $2.3 billion for fraudulent marketing of several drugs in what was then the largest such fraud settlement in health care. The Justice Department said the company marketed drugs for uses that federal regulators "specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns."
Fines for health care fraud have since ranged higher: $3 billion against GlaxoSmithKline in 2012 for violating promotion, safety, and price laws, and $8 billion earlier this year against Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma for its role in creating the opioid epidemic.
Pfizer is developing a potential vaccine against the coronavirus. If it's successful, the U.S. government has agreed to buy up to 600 million doses of the vaccine for $1.95 billion.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
