Major U.S. drug makers -- including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck -- have paid out at least $8 billion in fines for repeatedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid over the past decade, according to a report in USA Today.
These companies are fighting attempts by Congress to exclude them from federal government business because of their history of fraud, the newspaper said. However, they remain in business with the government because they are often the sole suppliers of critical products, the report noted, citing Medicare and Justice Department records.
Pfizer has paid almost $3 billion in fines since 2002 and entered into three corporate integrity agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at preventing future fraud, the article said. It makes anti-inflammatory drugs and medication used to lower blood cholesterol.
Another pharmaceutical giant, Merck, has paid $1.6 billion in fines since 2008 in order to settle claims it was not paying proper rebates to the government, according to the report.
Pfizer settled with the government in 2009 for improperly promoting the use of drugs for purposes other than those for which they were approved by the government, while a 2008 settlement with Merck was over claims the company paid illegal kickbacks to health care providers in exchange for prescribing its drugs, USA Today said.
The report says government investigators feel their hands are tied when it comes to dealing with drug makers. They can exclude Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies from providing medications to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries as punishment for bad behavior, but that would leave beneficiaries without drugs patented through a particular company, the article said.
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