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Pharma Fine on Decline


btdt

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Stronger enforcement is needed to deter pharmaceutical manufacturers from continuing to break the law and defraud federal and state health programs.

That’s according to a new report released by Public Citizen.

The report (see here)  catalogues all major financial settlements and court judgments between pharmaceutical companies and federal and state governments from 1991 through 2015, which totaled $35.7 billion.

Of the 373 settlements over those 25 years, 140 were federal settlements totaling $31.9 billion, and 233 were state settlements totaling $3.8 billion.

A key finding is that both the number and size of settlements decreased significantly in 2014 and 2015. Just $2.4 billion in federal financial penalties were recovered in 2014-2015, less than one-third of the $8.7 billion in 2012-2013 and the lowest two-year total since 2004-2005.

There were just 20 state settlements in 2014-2015, the lowest two-year total since 2006-2007. This reflected a dramatic decrease in federal financial penalties for unlawful drug promotion and a similarly sharp decline in the number of single-state settlements stemming from overcharging government health programs.

The report explores several possible reasons for this drop in settlement activity.

The possibilities include a decline in federal enforcement; a shift in the focus of federal prosecutions away from off-label marketing and toward other forms of illegal activity, as alluded to by U.S. Department of Justice officials in 2012; changes in state Medicaid pharmaceutical reimbursement strategies; and shifts in industry marketing strategies.

“We don’t yet know why there were fewer and smaller settlements in the 2014 to 2015 period,” said Dr. Sammy Almashat, researcher with Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and lead author of the report. “But we do know that, in addition to the rarity of executive accountability, previous penalties never have been large enough to deter the most common types of pharmaceutical fraud. So it would be surprising if the industry suddenly decided, of its own accord, to comply with laws it has routinely violated for decades.”

Pharma Guy's insight:

Could it be that pharma marketers have become more compliant with FDA regulations because their MLR people became more assertive after many major pharma companies, which do a lot of drug marketing, were fined billions of dollars for inappropriately, and in some cases illegally, promoting prescription drugs (http://sco.lt/7KaAQj)? Obviously, Public Citizen doesn't believe that is possible. 

 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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