Pharmaceutical Co. pleads guilty to charges it illegally marketed drug

Allergan Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to charges that it illegally marketed Botox for off-label uses, and will pay $600 million to settle the charges brought by the U.S. government. Although not strictly a torts story, I am posting it here because I think it is of interest to anyone following issues related to the pharmaceutical industry. The story is being covered widely over the internet. For details you can check the following: WSJ Law Blog, AboutLawsuits, Law.com, Pharmalot and the FDA Law Blog. As part of Allergan's Botox settlement, the company was forced to drop its First Amendment-based suit against the FDA's restrictions on truthful promotion of off-label use. For a comment on that part of the story, go here.