In the midst of deep public angst over the rising cost of prescription meds, drug giant Pfizer agreed to pay roughly $785 million to put an end to a federal probe into whether it overcharged Medicaid programs for Protonix, a heartburn medication.
"The resolution of these cases reflects a desire by the company to put these cases behind us and to focus on the needs of patients," said Doug Lankler, Pfizer's general counsel, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Technically, Pfizer isn't admitting it did anything wrong. But try telling that to consumers and politicians who are frustrated with what they see as a culture of price-gouging from pharmaceutical companies, most notably the notorious drug executive Martin Shkreli, who not only exponentially increased the price of a life-saving drug, but bragged in emails about the astronomical profits it would yield.
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