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.

Progress and Deficiencies in the Registration of Clinical Trials

by Nolan and Auerbach on February 14, 2009

The New England Journal of Medicine just recently published an article which raises questions about the ethics and the science of increasingly conducting studies, or clinical trials, outside the United States — when the studies are meant to gather evidence for new drugs to gain approval in this country. The concept certainly raised the issue of whether there is increased clinical trial fraud outside of this country, to the extent there is  less oversight and/or ethics. See Ethical and Scientific Implications of the Globalization of Clinical Research, February 19, 2009.

To read more click on
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/8/824

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