Let's Read Between the Lines

Front page of Yahoo.com today: Pfizer to pay record $2.3B penalty over promotions

The AP reports that, "Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, will pay a record $2.3 billion civil and criminal penalty over unlawful prescription drug promotions." Apparently we have laws that tell drug manufacturers how they can promote the sale of their goods, and the Justice Department feels that they have the authority to tax the ____ out of a company if they do not comply with such laws. I of course support the rule of law, but initially this looks like a blatant abuse of power, $2.3 billion!? I see this more as the government abusing 'we the people,' than as a large company abusing the government system.

From my reading of the article the violation was that Pfizer wined and dined some doctors on numerous occasions. Not dissimilar to what lobbyists have done with lawmakers who write the laws telling drug companies what they cannot do to persuade those they wish to influence. The article states:

To promote the drugs, authorities said Pfizer invited doctors to consultant meetings at resort locations, paying their expenses and providing perks.

"They were entertained with golf, massages, and other activities," said Mike Loucks, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts.

It's a good thing that this behavior isn't outlawed in people's personal lives because last I checked this is the primary method most people use to convince someone to marry them. But here is the part that is most disconcerting:

Associate Attorney General Thomas Perelli[sic] said the settlement illustrates ways the department "can help the American public at a time when budgets are tight and health care costs are rising."

This Perrelli is weaselly at best, but I see his track record as very dangerous. This comment about the DOJ helping the American public with this settlement is sick! The administration that he represents and supports is doing all of the wrong things to address the said tight budgets and rising health care costs, but not to digress, this whole notion of bleeding out large companies to help the situation is outrageous.

The other big issue is FDA approval and the subsequent promotion of drug usage. For example, aspirin is approved by the FDA to treat certain conditions, but companies cannot label or promote it as being able to do any of the other 1,001 things that mothers and grandmothers across the country use it for. The ridiculous part of this law is that once a physical condition is labeled as a disease by the Department of HHS and the FDA, no remedy for such "disease" can be marketed or promoted as a treatment or cure without going through all of the phase testing required for drugs.

All of this is done under the premise of the government protecting the consumer, but do consumers need protection from big brother? This is a much debated question and it will continue to be debated, but for now it is beside the point. This whole story is being sold today as "Big Pharma breaks law, health care fraud against Medicaid and Medicare." All the nudnick politicians and similar hacks are coming out saying what a wonderful thing this is and how terrible Pfizer is, again from the article:

New York, for example, will receive $66 million, according to the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.

"Pfizer ripped off New Yorkers and taxpayers across the country to pad its bottom line," Cuomo said. "Pfizer's corrupt practices went so far as sending physicians on exotic junkets as well as wining and dining health care professionals to persuade them to prescribe the company's drugs for patients in taxpayer-funded programs."

These are the very same taxpayer-funded programs that his buddies and liberal comrades have been promoting and creating for 75 years. They complain about all the waste, fraud, and abuse in their beloved entitlement programs, but their solution is to create bigger more comprehensive programs—socialized medicine being the mother of all.

I would venture to say that Pfizer and companies like it have done 100 times more to actually improve the quality of life for more people than Medicaid and Medicare have done or ever will do. Entitlement programs have never invented one new drug, never created one new procedure, and they have never nursed one patient back to health; instead they impede and limit the free flow of goods and services between health care providers and health care recipients by driving up costs, creating dislocation, and reducing quality. I would rather put the entire health care system in the hands of Pfizer (I of course would not want that) than in the hands of the federal government. So, read between the lines of this story, which actually broke back in January, and do not be mislead by the propaganda and the spinning that so many in the media and the government will try to pull off.