After six years of bribing American doctors, pushing antidepressants on children and hiding the heart attack risk of a diabetes drug, the British drug Company GlaxoSmithKline LLC got a slap on the wrist this week.

• Glaxo agreed to pay $3 billion in fines for improperly pushing antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and diabetes drug Avandia, for many years. It is a pittance to Glaxo, which had $44 billion in sales in 2011 alone.
• The settlement is billed as "the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history." But Glaxo had already saved up to pay the fine. The settlement will barely affect the bottom line and the news of the settlement actually sent the stock price up.
• Glaxo pleaded guilty to health fraud but nobody is going to jail. No executive was even charged.

Kudos to the Department of Justice for nailing Glaxo. "At every level, we are determined to stop practices that jeopardize patients' health, harm taxpayers, and violate the public trust -- and this historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law," said James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General.

But to a massive operation like Glaxo, the fines amount to a speeding ticket. Admitting to meaningless criminal charges and paying penalties for poisoning consumers is just a cost of doing business.

Continue reading here.