Arizona to Receive $804,000 From Pfizer; Company's Marketing Tactics Misled

The long arm of the law gave the drug company Pfizer Inc. a couple of pretty firm slaps Wednesday, one of which will bring close to $1 million to Arizona.As part of a settlement for a multi-state federal lawsuit, the company has agreed to pay $33 million to 41 different...

By James King

September 3, 2009

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The long arm of the law gave the drug company Pfizer Inc. a couple of pretty firm slaps Wednesday, one of which will bring close to $1 million to Arizona.

As part of a settlement for a multi-state federal lawsuit, the company has agreed to pay $33 million to 41 different states as punishment for misleading marketing tactics in promoting Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia.

Arizona's cut: At lease $830,000 according to Attorney General Terry Goddard.

"Companies are not at liberty to pump up their sales by promoting drugs for uses not approved by the FDA," Goddard says in a press release. "These settlements should send a powerful message throughout the pharmaceutical industry."

The message is probably pretty clear. This settlement is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the record $2.3 billion settlement Pfizer reached with the federal government yesterday, which was the largest corporate penalty in U.S. history

Come on, Terry, you can't get Arizona get a piece of that action?

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