Pharmaceutical Kickbacks

Right now the pharmaceutical industry is in the middle of its biggest challenge in history. Whistleblowers have exposed and continue to expose fraudulent practices ranging from pricing issues to sales and marketing practices at a rate never anticipated by either the pharmaceutical industry or the Department of Justice. Settlements and jury verdicts have been headline grabbing and large, attracting the attention of pharma, regulators, Congress and taxpayers. The qui tam pharmaceutical fraud cases settled since 2000 alone have amounted to over 3.5 billion dollars, representing various patterns of fraud. We expect to see some new patterns as time goes by, especially with the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Pharmaceutical fraud is still abundant and this blog is intended to keep readers up to date with all pharmaceutical fraud related news and to provide commentary when warranted. This blog also contains an array of laws and regulations concerning the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act set out in an easy to read format.

Grassley Probes into Ghostwriting Practices that May Result in Pharmaceutical Fraud

by Nolan and Auerbach on July 11, 2009

United States Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa has asked eight leading medical journals to describe their ghostwriting policies and practices. The inquiry is part of his broader effort to establish transparency with regard to financial relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and medical professionals, according to a July 2, 2009 press release by the senator. Such financial relationships can lead to pharmaceutical fraud practices, such as off-label marketing.

In December, Grassley wrote to Wyeth and DesignWrite, a medical education and communications company, regarding allegations that Wyeth hired DesignWrite to draft articles promoting the company’s hormone therapy products and seek academic investigators to sign on as the primary authors. Previously, Grassley had written to Merck and Scientific Therapeutics Information, a medical publishing company, regarding similar allegations reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association related to articles on Merck’s VIOXX studies.

He sent the letter on July 1 to the American Journal of Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Annual Review of Medicine, the Archives of Internal Medicine, Nature Medicine, PLoS Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The New England Journal of Medicine. Grassley asked for the editors’ written responses by July 22, 2009.

For the full press release, go to: http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2009/prg070209.pdf.

For more information about qui tam law and health care fraud, contact Nolan and Auerbach, PA.

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vawamuzo
August 22, 2009 at 2:04 am

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