How We Pay for Big Pharma's Malpractice
| Fri Nov. 20, 2009 7:15 AM PST
The main reason we can't get a health reform bill enacted is because the pharmaceutical and insurance industries aren’t happy with their piece of the action. This despite the fact that when politicians talk about cutting costs, what they really mean is cutting services to us so these two big industries can enhance their profitability.
One reason drug companies need additional revenue is because employee whistleblowers have found the nerve to report the industry's crooked business practices—leading to multi-million dollar payouts to injured patients plus fines for legal violations. "I was trained to do things and did things that were blatantly illegal," David Franklin, a Parke-Davis whistle-blower, told the Boston Globe in 2003. "I knew my job was to falsely gain physicians' trust and trade on my graduate degree. If he was a cardiologist, I was an expert in cardiology. If he was a neurologist, I was an expert in neurology." Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers themselves stand to make millions of dollars for turning in their bosses.
But in the end we're the ones who pay for drug company malfeasance—in the form of higher prices. And when it comes to health care reform, we'll pick up the tab for their underhanded dealings in the form of reduced medical care—especially in the Medicare program—negotiated by our representatives in the name of fiscal restraint.
In early November the Indianapolis Star ran down some of the big payouts by the drug companies:
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In January, Eli Lilly and Co. agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle charges it illegally promoted its antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, for unapproved uses. Nine whistle-blowers, former Lilly employees, split about $100 million of the settlement as their reward.
In September, Pfizer said it would pay $2.3 billion to settle charges that it illegally promoted numerous drugs, including the painkiller Bextra. Six whistle-blowers split about $102 million.
In October, AstraZeneca reached a $520 million agreement to settle investigations into illegal marketing of its psychiatric drug, Seroquel. Several whistle-blowers will split an undisclosed amount of money.
And last week, in a courtroom in Trenton, N.J., the latest case began, as a former sales worker at Janssen (owned by Johnson & Johnson) testified she was fired in 2004 for complaining about what she considered pressure to illegally promote the antipsychotic drug Risperdal for unapproved uses.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 active whistle-blower cases are backlogged at the Department of Justice, and about 200 of them deal with drug companies.
Of the top 20 False Claims Act cases, measured by the amount of money recovered, 12 involved judgments or settlements against pharmaceutical companies, accounting for billions of dollars in recoveries.
None of the fines or settlements resulting from these cases will hurt the profitability of Big Pharma, which consistently ranks as one of the top two or three most profitable industries in the United States in Fortune 500 rankings. In 2008, according to Fortune, profits of the top 10 drugmakers alone came to $50 billion—and that, of course, is after the huge payouts to corporate executives.
Comments
Eli Lilly Zyprexa Fraud
Submitted by DannyHaszard on Fri Nov. 20, 2009 9:52 AM PST.
Eli Lilly sells a drug {ZYPREXA} that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
Eli Lilly has made $38 billion on Zyprexa and it was way oversold and caused diabetes and in some cases sudden death.
Eli Lilly has received a huge criminal fine over their Zyprexa cash cow,add it all up comes to $4.6 billion, in Zyprexa settlements,fines,litigation.
Did you know that Lilly made $ billions last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?
Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
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Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
We need universal, publicly
Submitted by christmas gift ideas (not verified) on Fri Nov. 20, 2009 7:32 PM PST.
We need universal, publicly funded health care because millions of sick and disadvantaged Americans are suffering and dyingThe powers that be are neo-malthusians. Thats what they want, especially those between the ages of 50-65 who are most likely to be out of work and an age when illness is likely to strike but who are without the social umbrella of medicare or insurance. Helps reduce the number of people eligible for social security.A better argument, or at least more convincing for those on the right, is that national health care would help our corporations who are at a competitive disadvantage with corporations in other countries where the health care burden is much lower. GM has been moving production to Canada for this reason, despite Canadas higher tax rates.And wait till Big Pharma merges with Agri-Business Giants, and drugs are grown on farms with GMO seeds. You ain't seen nothing yet.
You are so correct.
Submitted by ray4a (not verified) on Sat Nov. 21, 2009 2:26 PM PST.
You are so correct. Monsanto has sued many times so far when they accuse farmers of planting their seeds without paying royalties. Then you have milk producers that can't advertise they do not inject their cows with growth harmonies. Monsanto sued Ben and Jerry's because they advertised they did not use growth harmonies in their milk products and did not buy from producers that did. The military industrial complex is being rivaled by the agri-business industrial complex. The healthcare industry is a threat to all our wellbeing. Their end goal is to create an ailment that only they have the cure. There is more of this happening today and to make things worse ALL THESE DRUGS WERE APPROVED BY THE FDA. The FDA should be scrubbed from the top down. these people are not protecting the public and are facilitating fraud.
paying big pharma
Submitted by birthday sms (not verified) on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 1:21 PM PST.
this is hard to tell anyone i think
I'm not opposed to Big
Submitted by David Reinertson on Mon Nov. 23, 2009 8:58 AM PST.
I'm not opposed to Big Pharma. I wouldn't mind if research and medicine grew even bigger. It's neither more, nor less drugs we need, but smarter pharmacotherapy.
What's missing from our current system is critical thinking on the part of the customers: the FDA, doctors, and patients.
There's too little money budgeted for FDA research on less drugs, too few doctor visits devoted to reducing patient drug regimens, and too little push-back against drug advertising by TV viewers. If the most common reason for cessation of drug therapy is non-compliance (http://alignmap.com/noncompliance-fact-fiction/prevalence/) that's an admission of failure of doctor-patient relationship.
Yes, I agree that drug salesmen should be more honest. However, flim-flam is as old as the nation. Let's embed our Willie Lomans and Harold Hills in a system as sophisticated as they are. Where the FDA, doctors, and patients are allies, and can look at the overall cost of drugs, of compliance, of medical exams, of waiting rooms, and even the cost of increased complexity in reducing the quality of decisions.
That would be a prescription for a bigger overall healthcare industry, but one where good old sleazy salesmen would be only a small part of an improved system.
Yes, indeed, the public option is only the first step towards socialized healthcare. I admit it.
Big Pharma Fines
Submitted by bonobobill45 on Wed Nov. 25, 2009 3:55 AM PST.
Who receives the "fine" monies and what do they do with it?
We Pay and Pay and Pay
Submitted by Sam I Am (not verified) on Wed Nov. 25, 2009 6:19 AM PST.
I am sick that we have to pay big pharma to "research and create" drugs for conditions I never heard of (restless legs and irratable bowel syndrome) thru our federal taxes and then we have to pay for the medicine we didn't know we needed cause the "made up" conditions are terms that they created to make us aware that we need it! Demented! Government Regulation is a farce and a huge waste of tax dollars. SHRINK the Government!!!!
You pay and you pay.
Submitted by evdebs on Thu Nov. 26, 2009 9:10 AM PST.
You devote your hard earned money to research and development through the purchase of overpriced drugs prescribed by your doctor, through your taxes in the form of research grants, through door to door solicitations by well meaning folks in your neighborhood, and when the miracle drug is finally developed they'll give to PHARMA and then they'll sell it for thousands of dollars for a monthly supply and most of us will never live to benefit by it.
Life's funny in America.
“To turn your back on the corrupt Republican Party and the corrupt Democratic Party---the gold-dust lackeys of the ruling class----counts for something. It counts still more….to join a minority party that has an ideal, that stands for a principle, and fights for a cause.“ Eugene Victor Debs from his 1918 speech at Canton, Ohio for which he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in this “the land of the free”.
BigPharma Prevails
Submitted by Paracelcus (not verified) on Fri Nov. 27, 2009 8:26 AM PST.
Big Pharma is descended from the Snake Oil peddlers of the mid 1800s and in many ways it has retained their culture of confusion and deception. Although Big Pharma claims it must invest heavly in the development of new drugs, its budget for advertizing far exceeds that which is spent for drug development. Very few antibotics have been developed in recent years because they are not as profitable as drugs which are used chronically for problems such as erectile disfunction. Similarly, although tuberculosis has become resistance to many of the drugs currently avalible Big Pharma is not interested in developing new effective ones. Big Pharma is primarily concerned with marketing drugs for chronic diseases. That is, with drugs which have to be taken on a regular basis. This is so becauses it insures a constant cash flow. The FDA is a shill for Big Pharma. If there is resistance to the approval of drugs by the FDA, Big Pharma brings political pressure from members of congress to make certain the drugs in question are approved. There is no safety in this process for the consumer. Ghost writers, not investigators, design the scientific papers which are published to support the studies on which approval of drugs are based. The investigators frequently must sigh non disclosure agreements which forbid them to discuss their findings without approval of the drug companies. Physicians are then recruited and paid large sums of money to extole the virtues of the newly approved drugs to their colleagues. Frequently new, more expensive drugs, are detailed to replace older less expensive drugs whose sde effects and safety are well documented in contrast to the new "wonder" drugs. To be safe, one should never be in the first group of patients who are treated with a new drug unless there an urgent need for the medication.
Many new drugs are developed as a result of independent studies performed in government laboratories where the costs are underwritten by tax payer dollars. This is never taken into consideration when these drugs are turned over to Big Pharma for commercial development.
Unfortunatly this is the product of an unregulated capitalistic system.
Does anybody trust the FDA?
Submitted by evdebs on Sat Nov. 28, 2009 7:47 AM PST.
They say that we can't purchase presciption products from Canada because they're not FDA approved. What a cruel joke. I'd trust the Canadian system for approving the safe use of products before I'd trust the FDA, the USDA, or most any other US consumer agency that are almost always headed by industry insiders that are idealogically opposed to the stated missions of their own agencies.
“To turn your back on the
Submitted by evdebs on Sat Nov. 28, 2009 7:48 AM PST.
“To turn your back on the corrupt Republican Party and the corrupt Democratic Party---the gold-dust lackeys of the ruling class----counts for something. It counts still more…to join a minority party that has an ideal, that stands for a principle, and figh
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