Dark Sides of the Big Pharma Industry

1. Dark Sides of the Big Pharma Industry The term "Big Pharma" conjures the conviction of a contemporary advanced villain and describes a sector of the economy that may have grown to be very lucrative and strong to control. Large pharma companies shell out billions of dollars annually to resolve allegations of fraud, data manipulation, and other malpractices. Over the past 3 years, Global pharmaceuticals have spent $11 billion in fines for illegal behaviors including criminality, promoting unlicensed drugs, and selling defective medicines. GSK paid a settlement of $3 billion, Merck's $650 million settlement, and Pfizer's $2.3 billion settlement for pleading guilty on criminal counts. What Makes the Pharmaceutical Industry Disingenuous? Pharmaceutical scams can refer to any practice, such as manufacturing, testing, and marketing that increases the price a federal program pays for a drug. These scams include off-label marketing, creating and disseminating defective or ineffective equipment and medications, and altering the drug prices that are paid by Medicare and Medicaid. Some common types of Big Pharma scams are the following: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Unlawful kickbacks Providing false information about drugs Fraud of compounded drug Manipulation of clinical trials / Deception against the FDA Off-Label Marketing / Violation of FDCA Medicare Part D scam Violation of manufacturing standards Illegal drug switching Medicaid cost reporting fraud Scam by PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) 3 Largest Healthcare Criminal Forfeits in US History Here are the three most significant fraud cases of the Pharma companies that have scared the Big Pharma industry forever. 1. Opioid Settlement of Johnson & Johnson and 3 Major Drug Distributors According to CDC reports, during the past 20 years opioid cases have taken the lives of roughly 500,000 Americans. Johnson & Johnson and the three biggest drug distributors in the USA are the targets of more than 3,400 lawsuits that claim they contributed to the catastrophe. It is reported that doctors prescribed opioids to treat various diseases that don’t even need them, leading to the crisis of addiction. A settlement of $26 billion has been made with these

2. companies, and the state plans to use these funds for drug treatment programs and to combat the opioid epidemic. 2. Fraud Settlement of GlaxoSmithKline The corporation has been under suspicion before the scandal of China's bribery involving pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline(GKS). The drug company was fined $3 billion for promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to deliver safety data to FDA on a diabetic treatment. The forfeit was used as: ● 2 billion dollars for civil liabilities ● 43.1 million dollars for forfeiture ● 956.8 million dollars for criminal fines 3. Pfizer as the Harmful Deceit Pfizer, known as the Pharma giant, had to pay $2.3 billion to remove civil and criminal allegations against it. In 2009 the company had illegally promoted the use of four of its medications including painkiller Bextra, which the FDA rejected to approve due to safety concerns. It was the biggest healthcare settlement of that time.

3. How did the Pharmaceutical Industry Derive Immoral Profits from COVID Vaccines? Before the COVID pandemic, pharmaceutical companies were breaking out from the business of vaccines. Vaccines are one-use only unlike other medicines since these are not very profitable. But with the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, manufacturers and developers including Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and BioNTech have generally seen their revenues rise dramatically. According to recent statistics the companies behind two of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines BioNTech, Pfizer, and Moderna, are paying little in taxes and making $65,000 every minute. What Steps Can Be Taken? Big Pharma hasn't made much progress in self-regulation, therefore it's up to you to keep an eye out. Following are the steps we can take for our safety: ● Customers should check Open Payments, a database that documents financial relationships between medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies to check if all pieces of information are accurate. ● Certain activities, such as the prescription of several drugs for no apparent reason, may indicate the influence of pharmaceutical sales representatives. ● Patients who feel their doctor over-prescribes might draw attention to the problem by bringing it up. Despite all of the advancement, headway toward strict regulations of the Big Pharma industry could be faster. So, until more progress is done, patients and healthcare providers must do their part by being proactive, alert, and engaged with legislators.