Pharmaceutical companies are no strangers to enormous fines. As you can see in this data visualization, there have been some enormous. In 2012, GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay a fine of $3 billion to resolve civil and criminal liabilities regarding its promotion of drugs as well as its failure to report safety data. This is the largest health care fraud settlement in the U.S. to date. They pled guilty to misbranding Paxil for treating depression in patients under 18, even though the drug had never been approved for that age group. The three criminal charges of $1 million involved Paxil,Wellbutrin, and Avandia. The remaining $2 billion involved fines in the civil settlement over the sales/marketing practices of the asthma drug Advair as well as several other drugs. That’s the largest of the fines listed in this data visualization below.

2,0042,0052,0062,0072,0082,0092,0102,0112,0122,0132,014500,000,0001,000,000,0001,500,000,0002,000,000,0002,500,000,0003,000,000,000Abbott, DepakoteAllergan, BotoxAmgen, AranespAstraZeneca, SeroquelBoehringer Ingelheim, Aggrenox, Combivent, MicardisCephalon, Provigil, Actiq, GabitrilEli Lilly, ZyprexaEndo, LidodermGlaxoSmithKline, PaxilGlaxoSmithKline, WellbutrinJohnson & Johnson, Risperdal, Invega, NatrecorMerck, VioxxNovartis, TrileptalPfizer, Bextra Pfizer, NeurontinPurduePharma, OxyContinSanofi-Aventis, HyalganSchering-Plough, Temodar, Intron ASerono, Serostim