In the early 2000s, Pfizer was sick with an all too common illness, one which a corporation can live with for many years until it is uncovered, but which may cause severe pain nonetheless. If not treated right, it can even lead to the demise of the company.

This terrible tumor is called consumer fraud.

Pfizer has faced many litigation cases on topics including, but not limited to, defective heart valves, violations of Food and Drug Administration regulations in the United States, and a handful of consumer fraud cases in the U.S. and abroad.

No one, not even Pfizer, has a silver bullet to deal with these issues. Thus, Pfizer did what every surgeon would have done in this case: cut and removed the sick limbs so the rest of the body can live. In June of 2006, Pfizer sold its Consumer Health Division, including well-known brands such as Listerine, Nicorette, and Sudafed, to Johnson & Johnson. Following this sale, Pfizer opened one of the ten largest corporate complaint departments in America and instituted one of the most protective whistleblower policies known.

The success of this “amputation” was only temporary. Only two years later, the benign tumor spread again throughout the entire company.

The last major ruling regarding one of Pfizer’s securities class action fraud cases took place as recently as this month and in this same building. Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Pfizer’s motion for reconsideration of a July 1 order on the defendant’s dismissal bid as well as Pfizer’s request that the court certify two issues for interlocutory appeal. Although it is one that originated two years ago, it shows intent and put its character and reputation on the line. And that is only an aftershock from the past. The world is now waiting for the outcome of pending legal issues surrounding Lipitor and other drugs. These are not discomfort or injury cases, these are cases in which death resulted from Pfizer’s engagement in a massive campaign to convince both doctors and patients that Lipitor is a beneficial treatment for nearly everyone with elevated cholesterol. According to the complaint, women with healthy hearts who took Lipitor actually suffered a 10 percent increase in heart attacks compare to women treated with a placebo.

A criminal federal investigation was not conclusive, and the federal government will not prosecute at this time, but the lawsuits and class action claims continue nonetheless and are likely to cause damage in the billions. However, it becomes more obvious with each new customer left on the killing fields of greed that it is all about preserving the reputation of the Plaintiff at all costs.

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23). The problems keep coming back in growing numbers. This time Pfizer has gone from securities fraud issues to actual consumer life-and-death issues because of Lipitor and numerous other drugs, such as Chantix. Pfizer’s conduct in this matter is shameful. Its greed keeps growing and growing and growing, much like an Energizer Bunny on 1000mg of Viagra.

Stockholders need not worry, though. Pfizer is working to take care of the “issues” again! Instead of getting to the root of the problem (i.e., treating the diseases), it has chosen to treat the symptoms with a 600-pound gorilla. In order to conduct the orchestra of attorneys defending mounting lawsuits, as of June 23, 2008, Pfizer hired the best offense from the firm it originally hired to defend litigation involving Bextra and Celebrex (DLA Piper). All this at a cost of well over $7 million dollars a year in compensation, options, and benefits. Amy Schulman will once again deny poor Americans the right to a fair compensation in all the cases where they have been hurt by Pfizer drugs. This time, however, she will do it from Pfizer’s 42nd Street headquarters, reporting directly to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey B. Kindler.

Did anyone say anything about “good reputation?”

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/lgl/881510115.html

HA!