WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc. was sentenced Wednesday to pay a $150 million fine to the U.S. government and forfeit $14 million in assets, prosecutors said.
The company, a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories Inc., headquartered in New York, entered a guilty plea to obstructing justice, distributing a misbranded drug in interstate commerce and distributing an unapproved drug in interstate commerce, the Justice Department said. The charges involved illegal distribution of Levothroid, a drug used for treatment of hypothyroidism, while it was still unapproved, and illegally promoting the antidepressant Celexa for treatment of children and adolescents.
Forest Laboratories and its subsidiary reached a global settlement with the government totaling $313 million in civil and criminal penalties, the Justice Department said.
"Companies bear the same responsibility to comply with the law as do individuals," U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz said. "This is particularly so in the pharmaceutical industry where companies have an increased obligation to take actions that will benefit and protect the American public."
