A payoff disguised as a payback

As you may actually HAVE heard in the mainstream media (there's a reason for this, as you'll soon discover), Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is being forced to shell out more than $40 million to settle out of court a class-action lawsuit brought against them by at least 40 U.S. states. The allegation: That they were price-gouging cancer medication, antibiotics, and other drugs, defrauding Medicaid in the process.

No, not Big Pharma! They'd never do such a thing, right?

As shocking and inconceivable as that may seem, the U.S. Justice Department, the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer have teamed up to force Glaxo to cough up at least a small measure of restitution for its greed. All told, including reimbursement for Spitzer's costs of prosecution, the drug maker could possibly be on the hook for as much as $70 million or so…

Of course, this is probably a drop in the bucket compared to how much their gouging banked them over the years!

And of course, part of the deal is that GlaxoSmithKline gets away without admitting ANY WRONGDOING. A company spokesperson claimed the drug giant was shelling out merely to put the matter behind them - and that states' health plans choose to buy the drugs at the higher prices.

In other words, this whole exercise isn't so much a measure that'll make Big Pharma think twice about artificially inflating drug prices - more like proof to them that they can gouge us all they want and only have to toss a few bucks back to the states IF they get caught. Without even so much as a slap on the wrist in court!

Thanks for nothing, Spitzer and friends. You've just given Big Pharma permission to steal our tax dollars - as long as you get some payoff money (and crusading do-gooder headlines) in return…