The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York recently accused the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis of doing exactly this by providing illegal kickbacks, honoraria, and other benefits to doctors – exactly what it promised not to do when it settled a similar case three years earlier. Indeed, Public Citizen, a US consumer advocacy group, has calculated that, in the US alone, the pharmaceutical industry has paid out billions of dollars as a result of court judgments and financial settlements between pharmaceutical manufacturers and federal and state governments.
纽约南区的联邦检察官最近指控瑞士制药巨头诺华（Novartis)通过向医生提供非法回扣、酬金和其他好处进行贿赂——三年前当该公司解决一个类似的案子时就已经承诺过不会这么做。确实，美国消费者权益保护组织“公共公民”就计算过，仅仅是在美国，医药行业就为药品制造商和联邦及州政府之间的法庭判决和经济调解支付了数十亿美元。