"With this agreement, we are putting issues from the past behind us," said Brent Saunders, senior vice president for compliance and business practices.
What issues might those be, Brent?
Schering-Plough has agreed to pay $435 million and plead guilty to conspiracy to settle a federal investigation into marketing of its drugs for unapproved uses and overcharging Medicaid for certain drugs.
They will pay $255 million to resolve civil aspects of the previously disclosed investigation and will also pay a criminal fine of $180 million and plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to the government.
The agreement is subject to court approval.
The Department of Justice said that the inquiry covered illegal sales and marketing practices for the brain cancer drug Temodar and the bladder cancer and hepatitis treatment Intron A. It also addressed allegations of fraud involving Medicaid, the healthcare scheme, over pricing for the company’s Claritin RediTabs allergy medicine and K-Dur for stomach conditions.
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, who announced the settlement, said health care corruption "erodes public confidence, compromises the patient-physician relationship and adds costs to important government programs."
"The American people, as both taxpayers and consumers, expect our health care system to be free from fraud and corruption," Sullivan said.
As part of the settlement, Schering Plough has said it would add a section to an existing corporate integrity agreement it has with the Department of Health and Human Services. The agreement requires the company to monitor its sales, marketing and drug pricing, and to correct past abuses.
More at the WaPo.
Insider's view: it's a start. The stables must be cleaned. Grab a broom Brent!
1 comment:
Let me answer the question 4 Brent: The issue here is all about the cover up, making changes and moving forward.
They will cover up things that have not been exposed, make changes internally in terms of developing new and more effective misconduct pratices that will not be provable because they will leave no evidence. Mind you the misconduct they got exposed for, was also suposed to be full proof. Someone blew it and that someone or those someones may get in trouble or not. Usually they get re-educated and maybe even promoted. The moving forward part is going on with the same parctice but with new and improved MO.
How can a company resist promoting off label, especially cancer drug when doing so brings in not buckets of money, but truck loads of money. Isn't it right Brent?
Besides the Business Practices function is all about this, keep it under cover, if exposed do what you must, change things aroung and "move farward" to use his words.
Everything is OK in BigPharmaland.
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