Pfizer to settle hormone allegations

Global pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has announced that it has reached a financial settlement regarding allegations about a hormone product.

The New York-based company will pay a total of $34.7 million (17.54 million pounds) in order to settle accusations from the justice department in the US that a human growth hormone drug was marketed illegally by two subsidiaries of the business, reports the Boston Globe.

Federal prosecutors alleged that a Pharmacia company made an offer to provide kickback fees to a pharmacy management agency in return for recommending the Genotropin product to its clients.

“As the department of justice has acknowledged, Pfizer voluntarily and fully self-disclosed the off-label promotion of Genotropin by a Pharmacia subsidiary before Pharmacia was acquired by Pfizer,” commented the Pfizer general counsel, Allen Waxman.

The legal representative for the company added that the marketing and promotional methods deployed by Pfizer itself are not an issue and are not involved in the settlement.

In addition to the charges of irregular payment proposals, the prosecutors also maintained that another subsidiary enterprise illegally promoted the use of the hormone drug for uses which have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Pharmacia was acquired by Pfizer in 2003 and details of its unlawful actions were disclosed to federal agencies by Pfizer within one month of the purchase.