Educational programs for doctors at Hooters? That’s a real hoot!

Novartis says that its mission is to “improve patients’ lives” but it’s looking more and more like it should be to “improve doctors’ social lives.”

For years it organized junkets and fishing trips, and picked up the tab for lavish dinners. That was all so doctors would be more inclined to prescribe Novartis drugs.

But now the Swiss drug maker may end up having to pay a lot more than just the tab for such activities. And for the second time, no less.

A federal judge refused to throw out a lawsuit over how “professional” events were nothing more than “shams.” Novartis tried all the tricks in the book to get it dismissed, but for once, didn’t get its way.

So what kinds of events are we talking about, exactly?

Well, how about a doctor’s “speaking” engagement that just happened to be at one of the ritziest restaurants in D.C.? The tab was $2,016 — and that was just for three people!

Or other “educational programs” that just happened to be staged at Hooters. (Hmmm…did they claim it was breast cancer research?)

There were also fishing trips and an outing at a lodge in Alaska to catch salmon. Oh, the “speaker” also got paid $750 for that one.

Now you would think by now that Novartis would have learned its lesson. Three years ago it paid over $400 million in fines and entered a guilty plea for similar kinds of “speaking” engagements. The judge in that case also made the drug maker sign an “integrity” agreement promising to behave better.

But it seems they signed it in invisible ink.

Sources:
“‘Sham’ programs? Novartis must face a kickback lawsuit filed by the feds” Ed Silverman, October 1, 2014, The Wall Street Journal, blogs.wsj.com