Commentary
Pfizer’s $35 million fine: Equivalent to a speeding ticket
By Peter Rost, MD
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Apr 5, 2007, 01:50

How much money is the $35 million criminal fine Pfizer was forced to pay this week for illegal marketing of Genotropin?

Last year Pfizer’s profit was $11 billion.

But that profit doesn’t include all the additional profit Pfizer is hiding in off-shore tax havens.

The New York Times in 2005 described a new tax break for corporations, part of the American Jobs Creation Act, signed into law by President Bush, which allowed companies a one-year window to return foreign profits to the United States at a 5.25 percent tax rate, compared with the standard 35 percent rate. The New York Times went on to state “Pfizer . . . will repatriate at least $28 billion under the act.”

Obviously, the $11 billion profit is just a fraction of Pfizer’s real profit, but let’s use that number anyway.

$11 billion translates into nearly $35 million in profit EVERY DAY.

So the $35 million criminal fine was equivalent to one day’s profit.

Let’s put that in perspective: If you make $50,000 a year, that means you earn $137 every day. That is equivalent to a regular speeding ticket.

Did a speeding ticket ever stop you from speeding again?

Peter Rost, M.D., is a former Vice President of Pfizer. He is the author of “The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman.” He also writes the daily Dr. Peter Rost blog.