VOA慢速英语2009年-Economics Report - Illegal Marketing of Dr
时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2009年(九)月
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The world's largest drug company has agreed to pay almost two and a half billion dollars for illegal marketing 1 of medicines. The settlement between Pfizer and the United States Justice Department was announced last week.
Kathleen Sebelius and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli announce the Pfizer settlement
The settlement is the nation's largest ever in a case of health care fraud. It also includes the largest criminal fine ever in any case in the United States, more than one billion dollars. Pfizer agreed to pay another billion for violations 3 of a civil law, the False Claims Act. Pfizer, based in New York, had sales last year of forty-eight billion dollars.
A Pfizer division, Pharmacia & Upjohn, agreed to plead guilty to a criminal violation 2 over the painkiller 4 Bextra. Pfizer pushed sales of Bextra for several uses unapproved by the government because of safety concerns. It also pushed for use in unapproved amounts. Pfizer withdrew Bextra from the market in two thousand five because of links to heart attacks and other problems.
Pfizer also faced civil charges over Bextra as well as an anti-psychotic drug, Geodon; an antibiotic 5, Zyvox; and an anti-epilepsy drug, Lyrica. Officials said Pfizer paid health care providers to prescribe these medicines for conditions other than the ones for which they are approved. This is called "off-label" use of a drug.
Doctors are permitted to try off-label uses to treat their patients. The idea is that a doctor might find other ways that a drug is effective. But federal law bars drug companies from marketing their products for unapproved uses.
Kathleen Sebelius is the secretary of health and human services.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: "This settlement is historic not only because it's the most money taxpayers 6 have ever recovered from a drug company, but also because it includes the most comprehensive corporate 7 integrity agreement that a drug company has ever signed in the United States."
Under the agreement, doctors will have a way to report abuses by Pfizer sales representatives. And officials said Pfizer will have to make "detailed 8 disclosures" on its Web site. Pfizer announced a plan in February to publicly disclose its financial relationships with doctors, medical organizations and patient groups.
Yet this is not the company's first corporate integrity agreement with the government. Pfizer has now been fined for illegal marketing four times since two thousand two.
Prescription 9 drugs represent only about one-tenth of all health care spending in the United States. But fast-growing demand and prices have made them part of the debate over health reform.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty 10.
- They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
- He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。
- He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说,那是违反规则的。
- He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。
- This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
- These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。
- I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
- The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。
- The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
- Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。
- Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
- She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。
- This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
- His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
- He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
- A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
- The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
- The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。