Pfizer Inc. to Pay $60 Million for Making Foreign Bribes

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Tuesday that it had reached a $45 million settlement with Pfizer to resolve charges that subsidiaries of Pfizer and Wyeth, which it acquired in 2009, bribed overseas doctors and other health care workers to increase sales of their drugs. t the same time, the Justice Department announced that another subsidiary, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, had agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to settle similar charges. The allegations, which date to 2001 and in the case of Wyeth are said to have continued after Pfizer’s acquisition of the company, involve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids paying bribes to government officials. In many countries, doctors are government employees.