Fraud from the Big Pharmas

Where is the accountability here? Someone must pay and go to jail!

From today’s USA Today…

$8B fines, but drug fraud continues By Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY The nation's largest drugmakers have paid at least $8 billion in fines for repeatedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid over the past decade, but they remain in business with the federal government because they are often the sole suppliers of critical products, records show. Pfizer, the maker of drugs that help alleviate arthritis and other ailments, has paid almost $3 billion in fines since 2002 and entered into three corporate integrity agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at preventing fraud. It and other companies are fighting attempts by Congress to exclude them from government business because of their history of fraud. Merck, another pharmaceutical giant, paid $1.6 billion in fines since 2008, Medicare and Justice Department records show, to resolve claims it was not paying proper rebates to the government. Pfizer's 2009 settlement was for improperly promoting the use of drugs for purposes other than those for which they were approved by the government…

Read the entire article at usatoday.com

My comment:
Someone at the top of these big Pharmas must go to jail. They have all the money in the world to pay for their indiscretions and then some. Never being responsible for their ugly deeds. And, they are still making big bucks regardless all the while screwing the federal government. Remember, the federal government is you and me. It’s our money the drug makers are playing with. The CEO and his entire staff must be subject to indictment, prosecution, and incarceration. Perhaps a dozen years or more. If this were the case, this kind of abuse would stop pretty quick. What do you think?