Again I ask the question — were they just talking and presenting the leading recommendations from the American College of Cardiology(ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA). Actually a service to practicing physicians that might have missed this important new information

Also, doesn’t everyone in the world hear about off-label uses of drugs when nightly news picks up the AP story. Haven’t we all heard about statins for Dementia? Pretty sure that isn’t labeled (or well substantiated for that matter). I don’t think Pfizer put out that press release.

Henry, good luck finding a backbone.

Big Pharma is regulated…. plenty of CFRs to read, but who enforces these regulations? please inform me if you know.

For one disgruntled fired employee who is brave enough to file a lawsuit there are 1,000’s of disgruntled pharma employees who would like to blow the whistle even louder but can’t for many reasons.

Good for him… they will settle.

First, and formost, for those of you with low reading comprehension or a built-in bias, this is an accusation and not a conviction. In fact, federal investigated for 3 and a half years before determining that the case didn’t merit their backing. That doesn’t mean that there’s no case, but it sure casts suspicion on the accusations.

Second, since the pharma industry is the most regulated in the country (and probably the world), the chances of violating laws and regulations are quite high even when every attempt is made to stay on the legal side of very hazy lines. I’m not saying that evey pharma is ethical or that every individual within highly ethical pharmas acts in an ethical manner all of the time. What I am saying is that with few exceptions, major pharmas spend an inordinant amount of time and money making every effort to ensure the legality of their sales and marketing efforts.

Atlex

From what I read — they were basically disseminating independently developed guidelines. You know, the ones available at the ACC/AHA website.

Do you think docs here an off-label pitch for a drug from the rep and immediately adopt it to their practice? It isn’t quite that easy. Docs are a little smarter than you give credit to. But the guidelines provided good info that all docs should have.

I completely agree with you. My previous company was one of the absolute worst I’ve ever seen. In my mind, their “turnaround” was fueled by more corrupt activities than I’ve ever seen. In addition, I believe that the corrupt tradition of their top executives has been carried from company, to company, and they always manage to escape by running away from accountability at the last minute.

I hope they all burn, burn, burn on earth and in the afterlife. Better yet, let’s make them take phen/fen, human growth hormone, and vytorin all at the same time and see how they make it through. I think that where they should end up is in a 8′ x 8′ concrete room at the nearest Federal facility, but I seriously doubt that it will ever happen.

Previous SP

These activities in a healthcare industry are deplorable. The Big pharma companies keep doing what they want, promoting inappropriately and off-lable, skirting around the laws, destroying evidence, blatently lying when called to testify, and laughing all the way to the bank. In the meantime, the honest employees who seek to do what’s right lose their jobs, are ostracized and blackballed, have their careers ruined and struggle to find a job where they will be out of the reach of their previous employer. They suffer all of this because they have ethics and integrity.

This will never change unless the FDA, OIG, Congress and others in DC call them to task for their disgusting acts and make them really pay for what they’ve done. The top execs may end up in hell, but even that won’t be enough punishment for the lives they’ve ruined.

BP Watch