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closeMoney isn't enough
Posted by lexchin on 16 Mar 2011 at 16:55 GMT
Unfortunately even substantial fines are not enough to deter pharmaceutical companies from engaging in corrupt practices. Pfizer paid a total of $2.3 billion in civil and criminal fines for its illegal marketing of Bextra and 3 other drugs but between 2001 & 2008 earned $16.8 billion in revenue from these products. The fine that Pfizer paid was just the cost of going to business. Putting executives of companies in jail might have some deterrent effect but even this may not be enough. In his research for his 1982 book Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry the Australian criminologist John Braithwaite discovered that at least two companies had a position that could be described as "vice president in charge of going to jail."
RE: Money isn't enough
lexchin replied to lexchin on 17 Mar 2011 at 14:27 GMT
I was also the academic editor for this paper.