Genotropin settlement spin.

I note that the Department of Justice allegedly gives Pfizer gets credit for acting “responsibly” and not a word was wasted on the guy who forced Pfizer’s to report . . . last year a judge ruled that Rost, not Pfizer, was the first to disclose the off-label sales; that Rost’s claims were based upon his own knowledge of Genotropin sales and not Pfizer’s disclosures to the government; and that Rost, not Pfizer, was the original source of the disclosures.

"The relationships between pharmaceutical companies and the pharmacy benefit managers who have so much influence over the drug choice of millions of Americans must be free of the taint of kickbacks or other illegal payments," U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in a prepared statement.

Sullivan noted that New York-based Pfizer, which acquired Pharmacia in April 2003, acted responsibly when it disclosed Pharmacia's unlawful promotion of human growth hormone to various federal government agencies in May of that year.Pfizer said both settlements cover activities that occurred at the Pharmacia subsidiaries, based in Bridgewater, N.J., before it was acquired by Pfizer.

"As the Department of Justice has acknowledged, Pfizer voluntarily and fully self-disclosed the off-label promotion of Genotropin by a Pharmacia subsidiary before Pharmacia was acquired by Pfizer," Pfizer General Counsel Allen Waxman said in a prepared statement.”

Part of AP story.