Pfizer to pay $35M to settle drug marketing case

Pfizer Inc. will pay $35 million to resolve allegations by 42 states that its subsidiary, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, illegally marketed an organ transplant drug for unapproved uses.

Wyeth, purchased by Pfizer in 2009, was accused of encouraging doctors to prescribe the drug Rapamune for alternate uses other than preventing the rejection of transplanted kidneys, according to the Associated Press.

Rapamune was approved in 1999 for use in kidney transplant patients. Promoting drugs for uses not cleared by the Food and Drug Administration is illegal.

Read more from the Associated Press.