NOVARTIS WHISLEBLOWER SUIT PART 2

Truer words have not been writtennon this thread!

 

You have no idea if this is widespread or not especially if you are not in the northeast. There was a time not so long ago that the entire Tom's River district except one person was fired. It doesn't get more widespread than that. The one person who was not fired was the person who turned in everyone. The government wouldn't be involved if Novartis acted legally.

 

There is plenty of other areas outside of Tom's River. It is but a speck... so, no real indication of widespread, systemic issue there. Your story actually sounds fairly localized and furthermore, if they were already fired then it sounds like Novartis already did the right thing.

 

According to the Government’s Complaint, Novartis’ speaker programs amounted to a massive kickback scheme in which the company paid doctors millions of dollars to speak at thousands of programs the overwhelming majority of which suffered from one or more of the following defects: 1) cancelled programs in which the speaker was nonetheless paid an honorarium; (2) programs that were held in lavish or inappropriate venues (on fishing trips, at Hooters restaurants, etc.) in which little scientific discussion took place; 3) programs that were poorly attend (i.e., had fewer than three attendees, despite a three-person minimum attendance rule); and/or 4) programs involving the same topic, the same speaker and the same attendees (most of whom were often friends with the speaker) on multiple occasions often within days or weeks of each other. The problem, the Government contends, was that “[e]ven after Novartis entered into a CIA with the [OIG] in September 2010, its compliance program included insufficient controls to prevent speaker programs from being used as a vehicle for kickbacks to doctors through the payment of honoraria or lavish dinners and entertainment. Novartis had no controls to prevent sales representatives from hosting programs in which the same doctors spoke repeatedly to the same attendees on exactly the same topic.”

The Government notes in its Complaint that Novartis kept track of its “return on investment,” finding that the more it spent on speaker program honoraria, the more prescriptions its speaker-consultants would write and that when payments dropped, so did prescriptions. Finally, the Government strongly criticizes Novartis’ compliance program, noting that in 2011 the Company ”monitored only 107 out of thousands of speaker programs” and that “[e]ven with a monitor present” there were numerous, often serious speaker program policy violations resulting in “sanctions that were mere slaps on the wrist.”

Novartis will have a hard time defending its disciplinary scheme and, therefore, the effectiveness of its compliance program under the current CIA. Finally, and even more importantly than monitoring and discipline — at least in this former compliance officer’s opinion – is the need for good internal controls. Why? Because internal controls work to prevent things from going wrong in the first place.

 

Who the whistblower and how much do they get?

 

not me, that sucks, the Whistleblower(s) and they will get 20% of what the Govt will recover which sounds like billion$.

 

what a fucking moron. the cost of corruption is much more than govt lawsuits. its better teh govt get it than corps full of crooks and idiots like you.

 

You must be the moron who thinks Pakistan is a capitalistic Utopia.

 

It doesn't have to be as widespread as you think. Some of the costs per person was so out of compliance guidelines that it will taint other programs. Remember there was a time that the doctor's did not have to sign. A Rep just put names on the sign in sheet leaves too much of an opportunity for fraud. The way it was set up had no controls in it. There also doctor's who stated that they never even went to certain restautants much less attended speaker programs at those establishments.

 

That was in 2009. The only reason that Novartis did the right thing was because a Rep complained and would have caused a lot of trouble. Some doctor's spouses attended a program and Novartis fired reps because they did not report it to Novartis. Remember Novartis requires everyone to report wrongdoing and also suspected wrongdoing. They are very subjective as to who they want to let go as evidenced by the fact thar Ish still has his job after his fake program to cover for his holiday party.

 

I wonder how many managers from Chicago that were responsible for issues are still "managing" reps? Where did they go in Novartis? Hmmmnnn!

 

Which doctors that were mentioned in the complaint are going to be Tekturna speakers?

 

Novartis has tw WB suits gainst them. How much do you think they will have to pay?

 

They will pay in the hundreds of millions of dollars but they don't care. It is the cost of doing business. They are extremely profitable. Take the time and read the annual reports. They spend a fortune on lawsuits.

 

hundreds of millions? The US Govt can ask for all the Fed money spent on every dose of Novartis meds during this period. THis could end Novartis.

 

They can ask for that but the government doesn't want to put it out of business but they will get quite a spanking.

 

The Govt could ask for and get a few billion $'s in fines and a consent decree that basically puts the commercial operations under the control of a Govt appointed manager.

Can you imagine being a part of a pharma marketing and sales operations where every move is scrutinized by an outside manager. We couldn't do business.

 

They could do it and get rid of all in management who have been employed by Novartis for the last 10 years. They most likely have been involved in bad behavior.

 

Do you think that an outside, govt appointed manager would approve of most of what we say and do in the field?

 

Maybe with different management and no programs things would be better.