Pfizer is admitting to inappropriate conduct and is settling. From The St. Louis Business Journal:

Pfizer Inc. said Monday that two of its Pharmacia subsidiaries agreed to pay a total of $34.7 million in separate settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on charges stemming from marketing Genotropin, a human growth hormone, for anti-aging and other off-label uses, and the inappropriate use of a vendor contract to increase sales of other Pharmacia medicines.

Both settlements cover activities that occurred before New York City-based Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) acquired Pharmacia in 2003, according to a release. Pfizer employs about 1,200 people at its St. Louis-area research and development operations. Prior to its purchase by Pfizer, then Peapack, N.J.-based Pharmacia had owned 85 percent of St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON), but had to spin it off in order to be acquired by Pfizer.

Pfizer said Monday that one subsidiary — Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc. — will plead guilty to offering an outside vendor a contract to manage a Genotropin patient assistance program as an inducement to recommend the purchase of Pharmacia medicines. The subsidiary, which Pfizer said now has no operational role in the company, was assessed a fine of $19.7 million and will be disqualified from participation in government health-care programs, according to a release. Pfizer said the disqualification will not affect current or future Pfizer medicines approved for use in the United States and will not affect the continued marketing of Genotropin. [full text]