Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon will receive almost $5 million from the largest national health care fraud agreement ever reached.

Pfizer announced Wednesday that it will plead guilty to criminal conduct and pay more than $2 billion for illegally marketing and promoting its anti-inflammatory drug Bextra.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger, says the state Department of Justice helped lead the prosecution.

John Kroger: “The concern here is that when pharmaceutical companiesare marketing drugs for unapproved uses, there could be significant healthcareconsequences for the patients. Because these drugs haven’t been properly testedfor the use and haven’t gone through the proper FDA approval process for thatuse. So this is a very dangerous practice.”

In addition to illegally marketing Bextra, Pfizer was also giving kick-backs to health care providers for prescribing the drug. 

Pfizer withdrew Bextra from the market in 2005. In a statement the company said it regrets certain actions taken in the past.