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.

[El Blanco]

Yes, because a day's pay is pretty rough. also, there are insurance costs as well as the fact that the facts will increase with each offense.

Are you trying to imply that the penalty should be increased based off someone's bank account rather than the severity of the crime?

[derrida]

Ok, I'll concede for purposes of discussion that the average speeding ticket and associated penalties are an effective deterrent. It still seems like you ignored the statement that the $11 billion figure doesn't accurately represent Pfizer's actual profits, though.

Of course a fine should represent the offender's ability to pay, just as much as it represents the offense committed. Are you arguing that punishment is administered solely to recompensate society for prior wrongs?

[El Blanco]

So being rich is a punishable offense?

When did you abandon the idea of everyone being equal in the eyes of the law?

[theapportioner]

Well, I guess Pfizer should get fined the same as what a mom-and-pop store would if they did something wrong.

Not to mention that, unlike the case with a wage earner, Pfizer could easily increase the price of their drugs slightly to offset the fine.

Fuck big pharma. Pfizer is one of the worst.

[kahljorn]

If you're equal in the eyes of the law and somebody makes 10,000 dollars a year and has to pay 1,000 dollars, then doesn't it stand to reason that somebody who makes ten billion dollars should have to pay one billion?

marginal utility ;o

[sloth]

Exactly. You can't turn this around and say it is the quality of being rich that is being punished here. If a deterrent is going to be effective I don't know how you could possibly ignore the circumstances of the offender.

[El Blanco]

You act as if this is money to sneeze at. Do you know the first thing you have to learn if you are going to be rich?

The value of a dollar.

$35 million is going to hurt.

I will say that they should also lose any profits they made as a result of their marketing the drug, but that is very different from saying "they have to pay more because their bank account is bigger".

And are you sure we are talking about their profits and not their income?

[derrida]

$35 million is nothing to a company like Pfizer, not even a half of the marketing budget for a single drug. It's a figure well within spillage estimates for an entity that size. If it's really gonna make a difference, show me how Pfizer's stock price has suffered.

[El Blanco]

Sure, as soon as you back up your statements.

[kahljorn]

what is a big deal about this illegal marketing exactly, anyway?

what does it mean to be illegally marketed? is that similar in meaning to if cigarette companies advertised?

[El Blanco]

I'm not sure, but I think its for advertising the drug before they had full FDA approval.

[derrida]

Blanco:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=PFE&t=6m

kahljorn there were actually two charges brought against the subsidiary- one was that a 12 million dollar kickback was given to a pharmacy benefit manager to add Genotropin to a list of reccomended products to health insurers, the second charge was that Genotropin was being promoted for uses not approved by the FDA.

[kahljorn]

I see..