"Feds found Pfizer too big to nail" This is a Must Read!

[Lyric]

By Drew Griffin and Andy Segal, CNN Special Investigations Unit
April 2, 2010 4:44 p.m. EDT



(CNN) -- Imagine being charged with a crime, but an imaginary friend takes the rap for you.

That is essentially what happened when Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was caught
illegally marketing Bextra, a painkiller that was taken off the market in 2005 because of safety concerns.

When the criminal case was announced last fall, federal officials touted their prosecution as a model for
tough, effective enforcement. "It sends a clear message" to the pharmaceutical industry, said Kevin Perkins,
assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division.

But beyond the fanfare, a CNN Special Investigation found another story, one that officials downplayed when
they declared victory. It's a story about the power major pharmaceutical companies have even when they
break the laws intended to protect patients.

MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/pfizer.bextra/index.html?hpt=T2

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Dear god. I read this and couldn't believe it. For the record, I am pleasantly shocked to see something
like this on CNN. Not the kind of story I'd usually expect from them because it's incredibly substantive.
Basically, the feds caught Pfizer marketing off-label uses for a dangerous drug at TWICE the approved
dose, and because Pfizer is SO enormous and makes SO many important medications for Medicaid and Medicare
patients...they couldn't bust them. They instead "busted" a shell company that Pfizer created, and Pfizer
was left with nothing more than a fine that cost them 3 lousy months' worth of profits from that ONE
medication.

We are well and truly OWNED, my friends. They might as well start tattooing our babies with brand names.