Pharma companies balance sheets and the consumer safety
Today it was announced that Pfizer was going to take a $2.3 billion earnings hit over government investigations of their drugs Celebrex and Bextra. You can't help but wonder if they are profitable. Look no further, they recentely announced their attempt to make a $64 billion purchase of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. The combined merger would layoff 18,000 people.
Our interest on the Injury Law Blog is Consumer Safety and making sure that Companies pay for their wrong doings. In fact, everyone celebrated last year when Pfizer announced that it would pay $745 million to settle personal injur suits over Bextra and Celebrex. They also paid $60 million to 33 state Attorney Generals and $89 million for class actions. This is a lot of money for hurting unsuspecting people with a harmful drug,
The disbelief to all of us at the Injury law Blog is that this company still has $68 billion to purchase another pharma company, Wyeth. Are they keeping consumers safe with their drugs? Are the pharma companies taking the necessary steps in doing enough clinical trials to ensure there will be no deaths or loss of limbs or serious impairments from taking their drugs?
The questions remain to be answered. It is nice to see articles such the one from the WSJ Blogs by Sarah Rubenstein discussing all of the money Pfizer stands to make if their merger is successful.
Let's hope that the American public's safety is not an expense to this merger and this pharma giant flexing its muscles that it can afford $68 billion for an acquisition of a competitor.
