The arms race left behind massive lawsuits and criminal cases for misbranding and false advertising. Purdue was hardly the only company to have been sued. Its $634.5 million fine was soon dwarfed. Pfizer alone paid more than $3 billion in fines and legal penalties to settle lawsuits alleging, among other things, the misbranding and false advertising of several drugs. That included $2.3 billion to settle a criminal suit in 2009 alleging the company illegally marketed its blockbuster painkiller Bextra. The sum was the largest criminal fine of any kind, though it amounted to less than three weeks
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