Drug industry whistleblower bribed doctors, wore wire for the feds

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The man behind a $678M pharmaceuticals whistleblower settlement says 'drastic action' was needed to shake up the industry. 'The whole system needed to be blown up and pieced together in a fair way — fair for taxpayers and good for patients.' gmorgenson

Stefan Wermuth / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

As the years progressed, talk grew among pharmaceutical sales representatives about other drug companies' buying big-ticket items for doctors — covering the cost of a swimming pool was one rumor Bilotta recalled. Some physicians started asking for more — a television for the waiting room, a donation to a child's graduation. A top prescriber demanded that Novartis hire his son, which it did. The son didn't last long on the job, Bilotta said.

According to the Justice Department, Novartis"hosted tens of thousands of speaker programs and related events under the guise of providing educational content, when in fact the events served as nothing more than a means to provide bribes to doctors." Every quarter, Novartis would require its sales representatives to spend a budgeted amount, say, $5,000 apiece, on doctor speaker programs, Bilotta said. The funds were allocated immediately.

In the mid- to later 2000s, he said, the situation became untenable."By 2008, I saw this was just a bunch of schemes," he said. He contemplated leaving Novartis, but job prospects were few during the Great Recession.

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All the industries are doing is splitting the fees... SMH no ethics ©️™️®️

Sounds like a cuuuunt

gmorgenson He got $75mil out of it!!!

gmorgenson you would think that, if the govt was on the up and up. it looks like whistleblowers are used to find ppl breaking the law but not to make the face justice. instead, they blackmail them to keep them in line and they exploit them for their personal gain......allegedly

gmorgenson all fixed thank you

gmorgenson so you’re saying profit motive in healthcare is a bad thing...

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