03/24/2021 / By Ethan Huff
Back in 2010, the journal Europe PMC published a study outlining the extensive criminal history of Pfizer, one of the most corrupt pharmaceutical companies in the world.
The relevancy of this study today cannot be overstated, especially as millions of Pfizer-BioNTech’s experimental Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines are being plunged into people’s arms daily. Can this multi-billion-dollar corporate behemoth really be entrusted with carrying the load of public health during a plandemic?
In a word, no. Pfizer is a “habitual offender” that “persistently engag[es] in illegal and corrupt marketing practices, bribing physicians and suppressing adverse trial results.”
“Since 2002 the company and its subsidiaries have been assessed $3 billion in criminal convictions, civil penalties and jury awards,” study author Robert G. Evans outlines.
“The $2.3 billion settlement in September 2009 … set a new record for both criminal fines and total penalties.”
Evans’ paper goes on to expose multiple Pfizer products that were illegally marketed for “off-label” use, which resulted in patients being injured or killed. Pfizer illegally paid kickbacks to physicians to prescribe these drugs for unapproved uses. Such drugs include:
• Bextra (valdecoxib), a pain medication that was later pulled from the market
• Geodon (ziprasidone HCl), an atypical antipsychotic
• Zyvox (linezolid), an antibiotic
• Lyrica (pregabalin), a seizure medication
• Viagra (sildenafil), an erectile dysfunction drug
• Lipitor (atorvastatin), a cholesterol drug
These are just the drugs for which Pfizer was caught committing crimes, mind you. There were also many more cases prior in which Pfizer pleaded guilty for breaking the law.
In 2007, Pfizer subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn (P&U) paid $34 million and pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks for formulary placement of its drugs. P&U entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement for off-label distribution of Genotropin, the company’s brand name for the human growth hormone (HGH) somatropin.
Three years earlier in 2004, Pfizer subsidiary Warner-Lambert pleaded guilty and paid more than $430 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liability for fraudulently marketing Neurontin (gabapentin). Originally developed for epilepsy, Neurontin was promoted by Warner-Lambert for the off-label treatment of neurological pain, including that associated with migraines.
Two years prior to that, Warner-Lambert and another Pfizer subsidiary known as Parke-Davis paid out $49 million to resolve civil claims alleging that the two companies failed to report best prices for their Lipitor drug as required under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Statute.
Nearly a decade later, Pfizer was once again ordered to pay out a large sum of cash, this time for $142 million, to resolve claims of again illegally marketing gabapentin for off-label use.
“Data revealed in a string of U.S. lawsuits indicates the drug was promoted by the drug company as a treatment for pain, migraines and bipolar disorder – even though it wasn’t effective in treating these conditions and was actually toxic in certain cases, according to the Therapeutics Initiative, an independent drug research group at the University of British Columbia,” reports indicate.
“The trials forced the company to release all of its studies on the drug, including the ones it kept hidden.”
While these payout sums might sound like a lot of money, they are mere drops in the bucket compared to what Pfizer and its subsidiaries rake in for profit. In Canada alone, Neurontin sales top $300 million per year which, calculated over the course of several decades since the drug was first approved, amounts to many billions of dollars.
With all that said, it is perplexing that members of the public trust Pfizer’s rushed, liability-free vaccine for the Chinese virus enough to let roadside medical personnel inject them with it while hoping for the best.
More related news about Big Pharma fraud can be found at Corruption.news.
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