The price for the drug I need to fight skin cancer is so high in the U.S. that I could not afford to get it. If it weren't for getting it via Canada, I would run the risk of it getting worse. I live in the USA and can't AFFORD to take care of myself properly. We NEED continued access to affordable medications from SAFE, licensed online pharmacies!! Debbie

Billions in penalties paid, yet pharma isn’t fazed

posted Mon, 15 Oct 2012

The pharmaceutical industry has been systematically defrauding the government—and consequently, American taxpayers. That’s the conclusion of a new report by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. The group tallied the penalties paid by drug companies over the last couple of decades at $30 billion.

In late 2010, Public Citizen released a related report that named the pharmaceutical industry as the biggest defrauder of the U.S. government—surpassing even the defense industry. The group put together a database of all the major criminal and civil settlements between pharmaceutical companies and federal and state governments. They found that from 1991 to 2010, settlements amounted to $19.8 billion. Seventy-five percent of those settlements occurred in the five years prior to 2010. The violations included overcharging of taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs and illegally marketing drugs for unapproved uses.

The new report adds state settlements that didn’t involve the federal government as well as data from late 2010 to July 2012. Pharma’s fraudulent ways show no signs of slowing. An additional $10.2 billion in settlements have been paid out. Single-state settlements were responsible for the majority of this growth even though only about half of all states have chosen to investigate and prosecute pharma fraud.

Nearly every major pharmaceutical company has paid settlements. Multi-million dollar settlements have become commonplace and aren’t deterring big pharma from bad behavior. That’s probably because pharma executives rarely suffer any criminal consequences as a result of their fraudulent actions. The penalties are a pittance to big drug companies; they’re viewed as a trivial business expense in the grand scheme of overall pharma profits.

It’s ironic that there is such contentious debate between the presidential candidates over how to fund Medicare in the current election cycle. If drug companies didn’t routinely inflate Medicare drug prices, we wouldn’t be in such a dire situation. Yet, fraud hasn’t been a point of discussion. We’d like to hear the candidates talk seriously about holding big drug companies accountable for this systematic swindling of the American people. How about you?

Tell Us Your Thoughts

How do you feel about having to pay more than everyone else for your medication? Tell us your story. **By filling out this form you are giving RxRights permission to use your comments to help build support for safe, affordable drug importation.**

Recent Entries: