Pfizer Inc. agreed Tuesday to pay $60 million to settle charges alleging that some of its foreign subsidiaries bribed doctors and health-care officials in order to gain regulatory approval for the company’s drugs and boost sales in those countries.
...“Pfizer subsidiaries in several countries had bribery so entwined in their sales culture that they offered points and bonus programs to improperly reward foreign officials who proved to be their best customers,”
... Pfizer’s China employees also used travel incentives to bribe doctors, the SEC complaint said. In 2006, a Pfizer China marketing manager told his regional sales manager that the company would foot the travel bill for two doctors attending a conference in Australia only if the doctors promised to use no fewer than 4,200 injections a year and to prescribe a Pfizer product to more than 80 percent of their patients.
