Recently I read about a big pharmaceutical company (I think it was Pfizer) who was accused of marketing a drug in an unapproved way and that the penalty for doing so would be to refuse to allow them to do business with Medicare or Medicaid. This would effectively put them out of business and put thousands if not millions of people out of work. Since no one wants that, is there some other sanction Congress could implement to prevent such firms from attempting such actions in the future? Would it exceed Congress’s authority to expose the executive staff to personal liability or criminal penalties for the company’s malfeasance (assuming it was policy and not the unsanctioned actions of an employee)? If so, how else might a firm be penalized without wrecking the lives of innocent employees?
The drug was a pain killer approved for use in special and rare circumstances. Pfizer immediately sent representatives to doctors and hospitals touting it as a safe drug . They gave gifts, bribes, vacations and everything they could think of to get doctors to use it regularly. I read that about 1000 needless deaths resulted. For some patients, their skin fell off . There were lots of people who got very sick. But that is balanced by Pfizer making billions. It is America ,how can you find fault with companies making lots of money?
Put the top two or three people in charge in prison and let the ones that move up to fill in the slots know that if this crap happens again, they’re next.
There is a diabetes drug, Avandia, that gets re-released every so often that has a tendency to cause death by heart disease and increased hospitalization due to heart failure. The studies show it as effective at treating some symptoms of diabetes, but the deaths and or hear failure tend to cast a pall, as does the memory in the diabetic community. Pfizer is not the only company like that.
I wouldn’t so no one. I’ve got no vast problem with it. It’s a hell of an effective lesson for the next group of CEOs. The instant you start assuming that any company is too big to be allowed to fail then you’ve granted them executive authority over the government. How many people think this is a good idea?
Not necessarily. In the case of a company that is collapsing for financial reasons the government can attach all sorts of strings to any money it hands over in support. In the case of criminal acts on the part of the corporation the government could as said toss the bosses in jail, or impose fines as large as the company can sustain without being destroyed. I lean towards the former; corporations aren’t sentient and don’t really care what happens to them; the people who run them are sentient and will care. Especially if we started putting them in real prisons, and not the “Club Fed” versions for the wealthy.
I like the China solution to stuff like this - execute the CEO’s and let the replacements know that they will share the same fate for similar activity (poinsoning baby food, pet food etc…)
While I would agree that withdrawing the patent would be a fitting punishment in this case, I don’t think that’s consistent with the laws as they now stand. Change the laws so the next pharmaceutical company that pulls something like this can lose their patent, fine, but don’t make it ex post facto.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to anticipate every possible situation like this before it actually comes up, and so structure the laws such that the appropriate penalty is always available. But that’s the price we pay for living in a society under the rule of law.
I’ve got a good idea… How about letting them sell what they want, and you don’t have to take it if you don’t like it. If they release a drug that hurts people, the resulting civil liability with do plenty of damage.
And people will likely die, but who cares? Profit is far more important than human life, right? If someone is fooled into taking a dangerous drug and dies in agony, that just proves that they were worthless scum who deserved it.
They don’t seem to be doing enough damage to prevent this from happening. If you get a few billion dollars per year from a drug, a $1 billion fine isn’t a deterrent, it’s a sales expense. And the civil penalties are usually even less than the fines.