Animal Aid

Animal Aid’s major report, Making A Killing, describes how drug company greed harms both animals (through laboratory research) and people. This week the industry has again come under fire, from a senior consultant in public health who has accused the drug industry of being the biggest defrauder of the US government.

In a letter published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal, Alain Braillon states that settlements for criminal and civil monetary penalties reached a total of $20bn (£12.9bn) between 1991-2010, with three quarters of the settlements and penalties occurring between 2006 and 2010.

Dr Braillon also reports that, at the end of 2011, British company GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $3bn to settle civil and criminal investigations into its sales practices for numerous drugs – its fourth case since April 2008. And on November 22nd 2011, pharmaceutical company Merck agreed with the US Department of Justice to pay $950m to resolve criminal and civil charges over the promotion and marketing of Vioxx.

For more information on the damaging practises of the pharmaceutical industry, order a hard copy of Making A Killing from or view the report online.