Drug companies and corporate integrity: "It seems that for some companies, commission of such criminal and civil violations has become part of their business models."

BMJ. 2013 Dec 18;347:f7507. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f7507.

Escalating criminal and civil violations: pharma has corporate integrity? Not really.

Wolfe SM.

Author information

• Health Research Group at Public Citizen, Washington, DC.

"Are criminal and civil penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars an important deterrent to law breaking by international drug companies?

Further, would external monitoring in the form of US government mandated corporate integrity agreements (CIA)1 to prevent recurrences of such illegal activities, lasting five years after being signed, be an additional deterrent? Yes in both cases, but only if the size of the penalties outweighed the companies’ gains while violating the laws and only if enforcement of the CIAs were effective. Unfortunately, neither is the case. This evaluation is based on the recent, sharp escalation in the frequency with which many giant multinational drug companies repeatedly engage in illegal criminal and civil activity after previously paying enormous fines and despite monitoring under CIAs. It seems that for some companies, commission of such criminal and civil violations has become part of their business models."