Founded in a red brick building in Brooklyn in 1849, Pfizer, one of America’s oldest companies and the seller of the hugely profitable Viagra and Lipitor, is seeking to renounce its American citizenship and move to climes where it can pay fewer taxes. Despite its huge success in the US with its powerhouse blockbusters bringing in over $17 billion in profits from 2010 through 2012, and paying no tax in the US in the same time period while getting a $2.2 billion dollar refund, not to mention huge benefits from consumers/Medicare paying top prices under Part D, Pfizer seeks to move its citizenship to where the possibility of paying taxes is even less remote.
Click here to read the full New York Times article: Pfizer Proposes a Marriage With AstraZeneca, Easing Taxes in a Move to Britain
Pfizer bundled this in the background of its bid to buy Astra Zeneca for $99 billion. Pfizer would be following the lead of other companies who make huge profits from American citizens and US government through Medicare sales while paying next to nothing in taxes, by moving its citizenship off shore while retaining corporate headquarters thereby by getting the benefit of its presence in the USA market with none of the responsibilities of the companies doing business who are headquartered here. The theoretical corporate tax rate in the US is 27% (before all of the loopholes kick in) while in Pfizer’s new home of Britain it is 21%.
Pfizer, Consumers, and the American Court System
Pfizer is no stranger to the American court system with numerous actions pending currently including women who have developed type 2 diabetes while using Lipitor, (currently pending in MDL No. 2502) people suffering severe side effects including birth defects from Zoloft, arthritis users suffering numerous side effects from Bextra, defective heart valves from its subsidiary Shiley, and Rezulin through its acquisition of Werner Lambert.
In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of the arthritis drug Bextra for uses unapproved by the U.S. FDA., agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time. Pfizer also paid the U.S. government $1.3 billion in criminal fines related to the “off-label” marketing of Bextra, the largest monetary penalty ever rendered for any crime. Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer’s fourth such settlement with the Department of Justice in the previous ten years
In 2010, Pfizer admitted that during a six-month period the previous year it had paid $20 million to some 4,500 doctors and other medical professionals for consulting and speaking on the company’s behalf. This was the first time the company had made public its spending of this kind.
In 2011, Pfizer agreed pay $14.5 million to resolve federal charges that it illegally marketed its bladder drug Detrol.
In 2011, the FDA advised Pfizer that its “Online Resources” webpage on Lipitor contained misleading statements.
In July 2012, Pfizer agreed to remove claims related to breast and colon health from its advertising for Centrum multivitamins as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit brought by the Center for Science in the Public Interest charging that the claims were unsubstantiated.
In November 2012, Pfizer disclosed it had taken a charge against earnings of $491 million in connection with an “agreement in principle” with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle charges relating to the improper marketing of the kidney transplant drug Rapamune by Wyeth. That agreement was completed in July 2013.
On February 18, 2014, 56 pending cases in other federal courts were assigned to a MDL in South Carolina (In re Lipitor (Atorvastatin) Litigation, MDL No. 2502 (JPML). 14 of the pending cases were filed in South Carolina. The Hon. Richard M. Gergel in Charleston S.C. was assigned the cases. In the California cases, Thomas J. Brandi of The Brandi Law Firm was appointed to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee and these cases are presently in a procedural tug of war with the MDL process.
The Brandi Law Firm is nationally recognized for its long involvement in cases involving defects in drugs or devices. If you or a loved one have taken Lipitor and been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, based on medical studies, there is a potential claim against the manufacturer. We work on a team approach with two lawyers, legal assistants, and a nurse lawyer assigned to each individual case. If you would like more information, please contact The Brandi Law Firm by e-mail or call 415-989-1800 or (800) 481-1615. We have also set up a website dedicated to providing the most up to date Lipitor lawyer and Lipitor lawsuit information at brandilaw.com.