Pfizer's $35 Million Fine

[derrida]

Pfizer's $35 Million Fine
By PETER ROST, MD

How much money is the $35 million criminal fine Pfizer was forced to pay this week for illegal marketing of Genotropin?? Last year Pfizer's profit was $11 billion.
But that profit doesn't include all the additional profit Pfizer is hiding in off-shore tax havens.

The New York Times in 2005 described a new tax break for corporations, part of the American Jobs Creation Act, signed into law by President Bush, which allowed companies a one-year window to return foreign profits to the United States at a 5.25 percent tax rate, compared with the standard 35 percent rate. The New York Times went on to state "Pfizer . . . will repatriate at least $28 billion under the act."

Obviously, the $11 billion profit is just a fraction of Pfizer's real profit, but let's use that number anyway. $11 billion translates into nearly $35 million in profit EVERY DAY.
So the $35 million criminal fine was equivalent to one day's profit.
Let's put that in perspective: If you make $50,000 a year, that means you earn $137 every day. That is equivalent to a regular speeding ticket.
Did a speeding ticket ever stop you from speeding again?

Peter Rost, M.D., is a former Vice President of Pfizer. He became well known in 2004 when he emerged as the first drug company executive to speak out in favor of reimportation of drugs.