Another look at last week’s news

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell - Editor

Even though the latest settlement number is large, $784.6 million, it is less than the more than $2 billion that the US Justice Department had previously estimated, the Wall Street Journal pointed out, commenting on last week’s settlement by US pharma giant Pfizer relating to the calculation of Medicaid rebates for Protonix (pantoprazole sodium) between 2001 and 2006 by Wyeth, before the latter was acquired in 2009.

Pfizer swung to a fourth-quarter financial loss, instead of a modest profit, as a result of the charge it said it would take in its fourth-quarter 2015 results to settle a long-running federal case over reimbursements for its former blockbuster heartburn pill. However, the real winners here are the whistleblowers, one of whom, Louisiana doctor William LaCort, is set to pick up around $59 million under US law aimed at encouraging such action. According to a report by the Financial Times, this adds to the $38 million he has already received from similar lawsuits.