’)And you wonder why these guys and the right fight any sort of regulation.
A former senior executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Andrew Bodnar, pleaded guilty for his role in BMS’s dishonest dealings with the federal government relating to a patent deal involving the popular blood-thinning drug Plavix, the Department of Justice announced today. This plea agreement follows BMS’s June 11, 2007, agreement to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine – the maximum fine permitted by statute – for misleading the government about the Plavix patent deal. The Department said that the illegal actions of BMS and its executive threatened to reduce competition that could have lowered the cost of blood-thinning drugs sold to heart attack, stroke and other patients.
The penalties should really be tied to the amount of damage and not capped at some arbitrary figure. As long as companies can make dozens if not hundreds of millions and risk only a ONE million dollar fine they’ll continue to break the law.
Charges filed against individuals and penalties that are not arbitrarily capped.
What in the hell do the actions of this one person have to do with regulations?