http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576343753512740330.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs wow, great pr guys...keep up the good work in maintaining that reputation for integrity that SA stands for!
even more bad press about the same story: http://seekingalpha.com/article/272043-sanofi-under-fire-by-senate-panel-over-competition-delaying-tactics?source=yahoo
If you believed your product was superior to a generic, I'd do anything to prevent it becoming available. The company only had added revenue in mind but, really, has a crime been committed here?
The result: A majority of the subjects continued to obey to the end—believing they were delivering 450 volt shocks—simply because the experimenter commanded them to. Although subjects were told about the deception afterward, the experience was a very real and powerful one for them during the laboratory hour itself. Stanley Milgram 1963
Someone will be held accountable for this from a criminal standpoint. Maybe that's why some of the changes in the us. They can run, but they can't hide.
What part of this did you miss reading? "paying off doctors to lobby the FDA against generics was a drug company strategy – and that's wholly unacceptable. The FDA needs to work closely with doctors, so we must ensure that doctors' sole motivation is the well-being of their patients." The issue is not whether the generic was as good as our product, or not, it is whether we PAID to influence the campaign. I'm not happy about losing Lovenox, or any other product to generic competition, but that is the industry we are in. It was true for Lasix in the 80's and it will be true for Lantus in a few years. Let's not do stupid things to shoot ourselves in the foot, though.