Demand DOJ Seek Jail Time for Pharm Execs Who Mismarket Drugs to Vulnerable Populations
- by: Susan V
- recipient: President Obama
Just on the heels of a scathing report about Johnson & Johnson hiding dangerous effects of its highly profitable antipsychotic drug, Risperdal, comes yet another disturbing report of corruption and illegal drug marketing by big pharma.
According to Pharmacy Times, Kenturcky’s PharMerica “allegedly” pushed Abbott Pharmaceutical’s anticonvulsant Depakote on nursing home patients in return for kickbacks it received from Abbott. Not only that, adds PT, the US Department of Justice claims these kickbacks were fraudulently reported as “rebates, educational grants and other financial support.” Basing its report on the lawsuit filed by the DOJ, PT says PharMerica “will pay $9.25 million to settle" this kickback case. None of that money goes to those harmed or their families!
Likewise, according to a lengthy, detailed report by Steven Brill in Huffington Post’s Highline, Janssen of J&J also targeted its marketing strategies at nursing home providers, even though Janssen was warned by FDA that Risperdal was not appropriate for elderly patients.
PT says PharMerica is the nation’s second-largest nursing home pharmacy, and nursing homes rely on consultant pharmacies like this one to review residents’ medical charts and make prescription recommendations - which is why US Attorney Anthony Giomoa told the press it is DOJ’s responsibility “to ensure that nursing home residents are provided with the appropriate drugs based upon their needs rather than the business interests of the companies providing the drugs,”
However history is showing us that if the DOJ is going to ensure anything where pharmaceutical marketing is concerned it will have to do more than fine these companies that are in effect killing people for money.
Sign this petition to urge president Obama to issue clear guidance to Attorney General Loretta Lynch that DoJ prosecutors seek jail time for executives who mismarket drugs to vulnerable populations.
Dear Mr. President:
According to Wikipedia's report on chemical restraints, presently no drugs are approved “by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as chemical restraints."Furthermore the Nursing Home Reform Act states that “individuals have the right to be free from physical or chemical restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat the resident’s medical symptoms." However, because they are still used, "the FDA estimates 15,000 elderly individuals die each year by use of unnecessary anti-psychotics in nursing homes, “ adds Wikimedia.
The fact that antipsychotics and other psychoactive drugs have been determined inappropriate and dangerous to elderly patients suffering from dementia should severely restrict their use with this vulnerable population.
Nevertheless, says Wikipedia, the use of these drugs as chemical restraints is being “mismanaged by health care workers for the convenience of the staff rather than the benefit of the patient, as workers use them to prevent patients from resisting care rather than improving the health of the patient. This has been found to cause more confusion in patients, thereby slowing their recovery."
These concerns, which many sources have noted, make it all the more unscrupulous that pharmacies and drug companies would push these drugs on nursing homes and their residents – and all the more reason for the US DOJ to see doing so as crimes punishable by jail time. In fact, in most such cases these executives should be prosecuted for murder.
There have been too many such kickback scams occurring in the last few decades, including this case with PharMerica and the notorious Omnicare scandal, and it should be obvious that no monetary penalty, no matter how steep, is going to stop this dangerous corrupt activity.
Therefore, we, the undersigned urge you, Mr. President, to send a clear message to Attorney General Lynch that DOJ prosecutors seek jail time for company executives who mismarket drugs to vulnerable populations.
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