big pharma

The New York Times reports that pharma giant Pfizer has reached a $45 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it and Wyeth (which it gobbled up in 2009) regularly bribed doctors and health care workers in such countries as Russia, China, Bulgaria, Italy, Indonesia, and Pakistan to prescribe its potions, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

You may have heard about bigger-than-big-pharma company GlaxoSmithKline being fined $3 billion for pushing Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses and hiding important information about drug safety.