Whistleblowers Like Footballs: Warner Chilcott & Scam
By Ed Silverman / / March 11, 2013 / / 11:06 am
In one of the largest lawsuits filed against a pharmaceutical company, a pair of Warner Chilcott's former drug whistleblowers detailed numerous "means" by which they alleged cheating in order to boost sales through various prescription drugs.
Many of the allegations appear familiar – offering bribes in the form of meals, gifts, baked hams, pheasant hunting trips, golf competitions, for example. But the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Boston, also contains interesting details about the alleged instructions from management.
These include filling out prior authorization forms by whistleblowers, which for the drug company means an alleged violation of patient privacy laws, distributing all kinds of clinical studies downloaded from the Internet, as opposed to studies whose only uses approved were for drugs; offering incentives to committee members who agreed to include certain drugs on insurer drug lists, encouraging doctors to use coupons for Medicare beneficiaries, and knowingly hiring inexperienced young FSIs, to avoid the rejection by the ISF tactical experts.
At issue were efforts to increase prescriptions for several drugs – Actonel and Atelvia for osteoporosis, Asacol for ulcerative colitis, the antibiotic Doryx for acne, Loestrin and Femcon for oral contraception, and the drug Enablex for the overactive bladder. These drugs were the subject of a subpoena issued last year by the Boston attorney. The lawsuit alleges that state and federal government health programs for drugs were being unfairly overpaid.
We have asked Warner Chilcott for comment and will update accordingly.
What were the tactics pursued? Whistleblowers allegedly told to pay for entertainment for doctors and their staff, for prescription drugs Warner Chilcott
Similarly, ISFs have also come under pressure to get doctors to prescribe more drugs than Warner Chilcott. ISFs were encouraged to host dinner parties at expensive restaurants that were billed as 'Med Ed' gatherings, but were really casual meals.
For example, on March 23, 2010, an ISF was engaged by a manager to host a group of 10 gastroenterologists which also included an evening at an upscale steakhouse in Bingham Farms, Michigan. But "there was no serious clinical discussion about Asacol HD or any other Warner Chilcott product. Instead, according to the complaint, the whistleblower &n
