I am in the middle of preparing a presentation on the innovative ('ethical') pharmaceutical industry. After just a few hours on the net, searching for misdeed, I stumbled about incident after incident after incident. Here's a bullet point list of some of the stuff I found:
Merck: VIOXX – withheld information about health risks from patients and regulators
Pfizer: Trovan – law suits by victims and Nigerian government pending
Bayer: Guilty of defrauding MedicAid in the USA
Pfizer: Neurontin – fraudulently promotes drug for unrelated uses
GSK: Paxil – lied about effectiveness and safety
GSK: Guilty of defrauding MedicAid
IMClone: Insider trading
TAP: Guilty of defrauding government by bribing doctors into prescribing its drugs instead of cheaper but equally efficient alternatives
GSK: Omitted to tell patients and doctors voluntarily that its diabetes drug Avandia results into a 43% higher likelihood of heart attacks
Schering-Plough: Criminal investigation – sold misbranded and unapproved drugs, bribed MCO & doctors to use its drugs
