
Kickback Penalties a Small Price to Pay for Big Pharma’s Fat Cats
Robert Carter/January 31, 2025

Illegal kickbacks from Big Pharma giants like Pfizer, Novartis, and Teva continue to be exposed as more out of court Department of Justice settlements are reported.
In 2020 Novartis paid more than $642 million to settle a Department of Justice court case alleging their offering illegal kickbacks to doctors to increase the company’s pharmaceutical drug sales. $642 million was a small price to pay. Their 2023 revenue was over $45 billion.
In 2022 Biogen, Inc. agreed to pay $900 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged they paid doctors kickbacks to boost sales of their drugs. Again, a small price to pay. Their 2023 revenue was nearly $10 billion.
In 2023 Teva Pharmaceuticals and Teva Neuroscience paid over $450 million to settle a Department of Justice case that alleged they leveraged assistance foundations to fund patients’ co-pays. Also a small price to pay. In 2023 Teva’s income was $15.8 billion.
Last Friday, the Department of Justice announced that Pfizer has just paid almost $60 million to resolve a case of kickback allegations about its subsidiary, Biohaven, the manufacturer of the migraine prevention drug Nurtec. Another small price to pay. Nurtec delivered $928 million in sales to Pfizer in 2023 alone.
Pfizer itself is expected to report a $1 billion dollar revenue from the drug just in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The Pfizer kickback case alleges that Biohaven induced doctors to write prescriptions for Nurtec by paying them “improper remuneration” for speaking engagements and by pampering them with lavish dinners at “high end” restaurants. Biohaven also provided junkets for doctors’ spouses, family members, and friends at “educational” events which these people had no realistic reason to attend.
An ex-Biohaven staff member came forward as a whistleblower to alert the Department of Justice to these criminal improprieties, and Pfizer has acquiesced to the out of court settlement of $60 million.
A Pfizer spokesperson said that the company is “pleased” to put the legal matter behind them so they could get back to focusing on the needs of their patients.
Not to mention getting back to the $1 billion per quarter income that was ever so slightly diminished by this $60 million kickback settlement.
There’s apparently no need for Pfizer or any of these other Big Pharma giants to worry about these pesky lawsuits over their illegal and unethical marketing practices if they don’t affect their bottom lines any worse than this.
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