Pfizer settles fraud case for $430M

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2004 | by Greg Farrell

NEW YORK -- Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer agreed to pay $430 million and plead guilty to charges that its epilepsy drug, Neurontin, was marketed for uses unapproved by the federal government.

The penalties include a $240 million criminal fine, the second-largest criminal fine in a health care fraud prosecution, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The Pfizer settlement comes amid a wave of government probes into the marketing practices of big pharmaceutical companies. Since 2000, the Justice Department has extracted more than $2 billion in total settlements from AstraZeneca, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Bayer and Abbott Laboratories.

Pfizer said the improper activity occurred at Warner-Lambert's Parke-Davis division from 1996 to 2000. Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert in...