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May 13, 2013

Comments

JAH

Criminal penalties are also meant to punish and deter. Were a company only required to pay for the actual harm, then it could weigh the potential for getting caught and the possible monetary harm against how much cost cutting up front would still help it break even. In other words, the financial disincentive to cheating would not be sufficient to deter the bad behavior. This would be especially deleterious here where the consumer confidence in the safety of drug products is vital to the overall industry.

Avon

That's a helluva lot of moolah if you're in India!

I wonder how much the actual damage done (if any) totaled. It seems to me that fair criminal - and maybe even the civil - penalties should be measured in part by the resulting harm. Were patients left ill, or permanently injured? What were the Government's costs?

I personally would rather see the defendant make its victims whole, and spend the rest of the half-billion on free drugs for the needy in India. They could probably work a lot greater benefit to India with that sum than the USA will achieve by spending the same amount in foreign aid there.

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