As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Company Writes a Check | NYT | 6.27.04
The check for $10,000 arrived in the mail unsolicited. The doctor who received it from the drug maker Schering-Plough said it was made out to him personally in exchange for an attached “consulting” agreement that required nothing other than his commitment to prescribe the company’s medicines. Two other physicians said in separate interviews that they, too, received checks unbidden from Schering-Plough, one of the world’s biggest drug companies.
“I threw mine away,” said the first doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concern about being drawn into a federal inquiry into the matter. …
At the heart of the various investigations into drug industry marketing is the question of whether drug companies are persuading doctors — often through payoffs — to prescribe drugs that patients do not need or should not use or for which there may be cheaper alternatives. Investigators are also seeking to determine whether the companies are manipulating prices to cheat the federal Medicaid and Medicare health programs. Most of the big drug companies, meanwhile, are also grappling with a welter of suits filed by state attorneys general, industry whistle-blowers and patient-rights groups over similar accusations. …
Tony Farino, leader of the pharmaceutical consulting service at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that as a result of the investigations many companies in the drug industry were hiring executives to police marketing and sales practices. …
- Romeo and Juliet Act II Scene II, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”
- Hamlet Act I Scene IV, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”