Google in $500 million settlement with DoJ over unlicensed drug ads

On-line search engine Google Inc has agreed to forfeit $500 million for allowing on-line Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the USA, resulting in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the USA, announced Deputy Attorney General James Cole; Peter Neronha, US Attorney for the District of Rhode Island; and Kathleen Martin-Weis, Acting Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

The forfeiture, one of the largest ever in the USA, represents the gross revenue received by Google as a result of Canadian pharmacies advertising through Google’s AdWords program, plus gross revenue made by Canadian pharmacies from their sales to US consumers.

The shipment of prescription drugs from pharmacies outside the USA to customers in the America typically violates the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and in the case of controlled prescription drugs, the Controlled Substances Act. Google was aware as early as 2003 that, generally, it was illegal for pharmacies to ship controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the USA from Canada, said the Department of Justice.