Saturday, May 01, 2010

J&J hired physicians through its “Doctor-for-a-Day” program to join sales representatives in visiting doctors and to speak to colleagues about unapproved uses and doses, according to the government. - BusinessWeek

Under the civil settlement, the federal government will get $50.69 million and state Medicaid programs will get $24.68 million. The three whistleblowers will share more than $9 million, the government said.

One of the whistleblowers was Dr. Gary R. Spivack, a psychiatrist from northern Virginia, according to a statement by his law firm, Phillips & Cohen LLP.

“I found it outrageous that Ortho-McNeil would try to pay doctors to influence them to prescribe a drug for uses that clearly endangered patients’ health,” Spivack said in the statement. “Doctors need impartial and accurate information to make decisions on the best treatment for their patients, but that’s not what Ortho-McNeil provided.”

Two former Ortho-McNeil sales representatives, Angela Maher and Anastasia Savka-Klovski, also will share in the whistleblower settlement.

Posted via web from Jack's posterous

1 comment:

David said...

This news made me sad because just yesterday I was thinking of all the big Pharma companies that were implicated in illicit behavior. I thought, well, at least J&J hasn't done anything.

Then I read this news item.