Recent crackdown on pharmaceutical companies suggests that drug marketing remains an issue with federal authorities.
The Wall Street Journal reports: "Novartis AG's agreement to settle criminal allegations involving marketing of an
epilepsy drug is the latest in a string of cases showing that improper marketing practices are still a problem years after the U.S. government started cracking down on them. Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. paid big fines and pleaded guilty to illegal marketing of their drugs over the past year, while AstraZeneca PLC in September reached a preliminary deal to pay $520 million to settle a federal investigation into its marketing. It declined to say whether it would admit wrongdoing in the final settlement. This month, the Justice Department charged Johnson & Johnson with paying 'tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks' to a nursing-home pharmacy company to boost sales of J&J drugs. J&J said its conduct was 'lawful and appropriate'" (Whalen, 1/29).