Novartis Treated Doctors to Fishing, Hooters Outings, U.S. Says

[Eugene]

Source: Bloomberg

Novartis Treated Doctors to Fishing, Hooters Outings, U.S. Says

By Bob Van Voris - Apr 27, 2013 12:01 AM

Novartis AG (NOVN) was sued by the U.S., for the second time this week, for allegedly paying kickbacks to increase prescription-drug sales.

Novartis plied physicians with expensive dinners, speaker fees, fishing trips and outings at Hooters restaurants to get them to increase prescriptions of the company’s drugs, the U.S. said in a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court. Federal health care programs were forced to pay millions of dollars for kickback-tainted claims as a result, the U.S. said.

The government intervened in a private False Claims Act suit filed in 2011, alleging that the Basel, Switzerland-based drug maker violated the Anti-Kickback Statute to increase sales of two of its hypertension drugs, Lotrel and Valturna, and its diabetes drug Starlix. The suit seeks triple damages and civil penalties.

“Novartis corrupted the prescription drug dispensing process with multimillion-dollar ‘incentive programs’ that targeted doctors who, in exchange for illegal kickbacks, steered patients toward its drugs,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement yesterday. “Novartis reaped dramatically increased profits on these drugs, and Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health-care programs were left holding the bag.”

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-26/novartis-paid-for-doctor-fishing-hooters-outings-u-s-says-1-.html

[Th1onein]

1. K & R

Thanks for posting this. Very informative.