In the midst of deep public angst over the rising cost of prescription meds, drug giant Pfizer agreed to pay roughly $785 million to put an end to a federal probe into whether it overcharged Medicaid programs for Protonix, a heartburn medication.
"The resolution of these cases reflects a desire by the company to put these cases behind us and to focus on the needs of patients," said Doug Lankler, Pfizer's general counsel, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Technically, Pfizer isn't admitting it did anything wrong. But try telling that to consumers and politicians who are frustrated with what they see as a culture of price-gouging from pharmaceutical companies, most notably the notorious drug executive Martin Shkreli, who not only exponentially increased the price of a life-saving drug, but bragged in emails about the astronomical profits it would yield.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
