Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

On November 4th, 2013, global health care giant Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries reached a settlement amount of $2.2 billion dollars. Johnson & Johnson settled to pay this amount to resolve the civil and criminal allegations of promotions not approved as safe and effective, kickbacks to physicians, and violations based on the False claim act. This type of offense has been common with pharmaceutical companies for the past ten years, but the federal government still gives pharmaceutical companies tax breaks which represent billions of dollars in lost revenue for the federal government. With this type of exemption, pharmaceutical companies are given an incentive to commit fraud for corporate greed while neglecting to put funds towards research and development.