Boom in US financial penalties for regulatory misdemeanours
US$6.6bn fines levied by federal and state governments in first half of 2012 alone
The Health Research Group of US government watchdog Public Citizen has reported a boom in financial penalties being levied against pharmaceutical companies in the country for regulatory misdemeanours. It said 74 additional settlements, reaping US$10.2bn in financial penalties, were struck between the federal and state governments and pharmaceutical manufacturers between 2 November 2010 and 18 July 2012.
During the first half of 2012, $5bn was levied on pharma companies by the federal government and $1.6bn by state governments making 2012 already a record year for both federal and state governments.
Since 1991, 239 settlements worth $30.2bn have been agreed (to 18 July 2012), but Public Citizen argued that on a federal level, ‘financial penalties still continue to pale in comparison to company profits’. It added that parent companies were ‘only rarely excluded from participation in Medicare and Medicaid [health programmes] for illegal activities’, which endangered public health and wasted public money.