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How drug company criminal behavior impacts every one of us

Day of the Jackal

Your doctor may have been paid by a drug company for participating in a criminal act. But you’ll never know it because he’ll never be punished. In fact, he’ll still pocket the money he was given.

All in a day’s work!

They called their program “Doctor for a Day.” And it’s not the most despicable criminal act a drug company ever committed, because nobody died from this one. Still, I’d put it up toward the top of the list of typically devious boneheaded plans.

Executives at Ortho-McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, cooked up an outrageous scheme to expand sales of their drug Topamax. The drug is FDA approved to treat epilepsy and migraines, but they directed their sales reps to visit psychiatrists and promote Topamax for various psychiatric uses that are not approved by the FDA.

That’s a huge no-no. GIANT no-no. In fact, it’s criminal. And they knew it. Absolutely no gray areas here.

Which is why they recently pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court and agreed to a fine of more than $6 million.

Oh, and just by the way (this has nothing to do with the “Doctor for a Day” program), an affiliate of Ortho-McNeil will pay a $75 million fine for illegally promoting Topamax for unapproved psychiatric uses to government health care programs–that’s right: bilking taxpayers.

Hilarious bonus detail: As part of the settlement, the company entered into a “corporate integrity agreement” with Health and Human Services. In other words: “From now on we promise to be good–cross our hearts!”

The phrase “Not worth the paper it’s written on” comes to mind.

Anyway…back to “Doctor for a Day.” So here we have Ortho- McNeil paying out millions for their bald-faced blunder. But I haven’t told you the worst part. And the irony is that this part was not a factor in the criminal charges or the fine, but it’s by far the worst detail in this deceitful mess.

In the “Doctor for a Day” program, Ortho-McNeil paid doctors to accompany sales reps on sales calls.

Disgraceful? Over the TOP disgraceful!

Doctor for a day? That’s exactly what it WASN’T! It was doctors playing “Sales Reps for a Day.” And while it’s appalling that a drug company would suggest such an idea to doctors, it’s completely infuriating that doctors willingly participated in the illegal shill.

Worst of all, the individual doctors who participated weren’t implicated in the criminal charges against Ortho- McNeil, but they certainly SHOULD have been. And should have lost their licenses too!

These are medical professionals with patients, just like you and me, who trust them. But those patients will never understand how low their doctors are willing to stoop to cash in a dirty payday from Big Pharma.

I’ve said it before: Drug companies will continue to do this sort of thing as long as the benefits outweigh the risks. And in cases of million (or billion) dollar drugs, they always do.

Corporate integrity agreements? They’re as valuable as confetti.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, LLC Pleads Guilty to Illegal Promotion of Topamax and is Sentenced to Criminal Fine of $6.14 Million” U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, 5/21/10, fda.gov

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