Fentanyl pharma employees indicted in kickbacks to doctors

[Tanuki]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/11/business/drug-makers-former-employees-accused-of-shady-dealings-with-doctors.html?_r=1

..."Mr. Roper sent out a blistering email to his staff members at the time, in March 2014, urging them to make a final push. “There is no excuse for any of your docs to not take care of you at this crucial time of the quarter,” he wrote. It’s time, he said, for the top-prescribing doctors “to give back for all of the hard work, long days and late nights you have spoiled them with.”

Mr. Roper and a former sales representative, Fernando Serrano, were arrested on Thursday on federal anti-kickback charges, accused of paying thousands of dollars to doctors to participate in what federal prosecutors described as “sham” educational programs in exchange for prescribing millions of dollars worth of fentanyl. Criminal charges against drug company employees are unusual, legal experts said, underscoring the sordid nature of the case and its connection with fentanyl, which is frequently abused and can lead to deadly overdoses if inappropriately prescribed.
.....
Federal prosecutors say that the case is particularly egregious because it involves inappropriate marketing of fentanyl, a drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine and abuse of which has been skyrocketing in the United States. Fentanyl is the drug that the musician Prince accidentally overdosed on, killing him, although it is not clear what form he took. Fentanyl is a generic drug and is sold in many forms. The version sold by Insys is for cancer patients.
.....
In the indictment, filed in the Southern District in Manhattan, prosecutors said that doctors were paid as much as $3,000 per speaking engagement and that the events were held in fancy restaurants. Rather than inviting doctors who were new to using the product, the guests were often friends of the speakers, or were doctors who had already attended similar events and were unlikely to learn anything new. Sign-in sheets contained signatures that were forged to make the events look legitimate, the prosecutors said. After the dinners, the doctors and sales representatives sometimes left for a strip club, where the doctors were not asked to pay a cover charge or for their drinks. Instead, they were entertained at a reserved table with bottles of liquor, according to the indictments. But all of this attention did not come free, prosecutors argued: Mr. Roper and Mr. Serrano expected that the doctors would return the favor by prescribing more Subsys."......(more at link)

[Lint Head]

1. I think it's standard practice in the pharmaceutical industry.

I cannot go to a doctor's visit without having to wait for a legal drug pusher to finish thier sales pitch to the MD. They often bring food and goodies for the staff.

Sickness and death should not be a profit motive.

[blue neen]

2. Despicable.

"Pushers"