Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17121

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Truman C
GlaxoSmithKline fined $5.8 million for deceptive marketing in Ky.
The Lexington Herald-Leader 2010 Jan 29
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/1115549.html

Full text:

Franklin Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden has awarded Kentucky more than $5.8 million in civil penalties in its case against GlaxoSmithKline for deceptive or false marketing of drugs including the anti-nausea drugs Kytril and Zofran.
The award was announced by state Attorney General Jack Conway and was the second in two days against a major pharmaceutical company. On Wednesday, Conway announced that Crittenden had awarded $5.3 million in civil penalties against AstraZeneca for violating Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act.
On Nov. 13, a Franklin Circuit Court jury handed down a $661,860 verdict against Glaxo.
Mary Ann Rhyne, a spokeswoman for Glaxo, said the company “is disappointed because we believe the result is disproportionate to what the jury found, and we’re considering our options including an appeal.”
The state attorney general’s office has filed suit against 47 pharmaceutical companies alleging violations of Kentucky’s Medicaid Fraud and Consumer Protection statutes, and false and deceptive advertising.
Glaxo, Novartis and AstraZeneca were sued by Alabama based on claims that their actions resulted in the state paying too much for drugs. Judgments against the companies were overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court in 2009 when the court ruled the companies did not defraud the state in pricing Medicaid prescription drugs.