Pharmaceuticals Ordered To Pay Hawaii Nearly $1 Billion For Deceptive Business Practices

The drug companies hid information from doctors who prescribed Plavix, which can have outsized negative effects on Asians and Pacific Islanders.

A Hawaii state judge on Tuesday awarded the state more than $900 million after he found two major pharmaceutical companies had employed unfair and deceptive business practices in marketing the blood thinner drug Plavix.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and U.S. subsidiaries of Sanofi, a French drug company, were each ordered to pay $458 million by First Circuit Judge James Ashford.

The companies failed to disclose the efficacy and safety profile of Plavix, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said in a press release.

Ashford found that the companies knew some patients, particularly non-Caucasian races, might not do as well on the drug but deliberately suppressed research and allowed Hawaii doctors to prescribe the medication without having the necessary information.

According to the AG’s press release, the judge found that the defendants “deliberately turned a blind eye toward the diminished response problem because of Defendants’ concern that addressing that problem might adversely affect Plavix sales and Defendants’ profits.”

In enforcing Hawaii’s consumer protection statute, the court concluded that Hawaii had a heightened interest in this case because “the omission of warning information raises a serious risk of harm to all consumers, but a particularly high risk to patients of East Asian and Pacific Island descent, who represent a significant portion of Hawaii’s population,” the release said.

The case was initially filed in 2014 by then-Attorney General David Louie. You can read Ashford’s order findings, conclusions and order here.

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