WTF - Neutontin - Parke Davis / Warner-Lambert / Pfizer
Disgusting.
Pharma is not pretty I know that.
This is beyond the pale.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090809231252693
Background:
Neurontin is a fairly safe anti-epilepsy drug. It has a comparatively low side-effect profile and its
hard to overdose on. It is not the world's most effective drug, but the side effects are not bad. In fact my sister took this for a long time for epilepsy. Anyway, P-D decided they needed to make more money off the drug. AED (anti-epileptic-drugs) don't make the big bucks. So they did a lot of bad things and including most recently sending a some shady guy to a witness's house the day before he was to testify against them...
Anyway the article is huge. This particular case was dismissed, but the testimony is damning to the P-D/Pfizer.
...
Q. Did this gentleman at any point in time come out to your house yesterday?
A. Yes. At that point my wife said I'm sorry, I don't have anything to
say to you, and hung up on him. He called back about 30 minutes later
and insisted that he speak to her and that he had an urgent message to
deliver to me and needed to see me face to face, and that he wasn't
going to accept no from her if she didn't put us in contact, he would
-- he would not let it go, he would come to what he believed to be her
home. He would -- this was -- the quote was, you will see me, this
isn't going to end.
...
And so I was prepared for that type of very technical scientific
conversation, even though I knew that I was applying for -- I had
initially applied for a -- excuse me, a sales job. At this point I
knew that I was actually applying for the medical and scientific
liaison position. So I expected a science sort of discussion. ... So
when I got down there, the conversations were much more, in
retrospect, sales oriented. The primary theme of the -- the theme that
stood out was -- everybody that I interviewed with was -- either asked
me or prepared me to answer questions about times when I've had to
bend the rules. Give me examples of when you found yourself in
conflict or you found yourself in a place where you were working in a
gray area, how did you handle that?
...
He'll tell you that that wasn't the only thing; that the drug company
also told him to go out there and to convince the doctors to write
what's called megadosing. You see, it's not enough that the drug
company is going to try and expand their profit margins by selling it
off-label. The FDA only approves it in dosages up to, I think at the
time it was 1,800 milligrams, but the salespeople are told to go out
there and to convince the doctors that they can do not 1,800. "Give
them 21, give them 25, give them 28, give them 31, give them 4,000,
give them 4,800 a day, more and more and more pills. Get it up as high
as you can."
...
They would go to the doctors, and they would say, "Doctor, I can't pay
you to write a prescription, but I'll tell you what I can do. If
you'll let me watch you write the prescription, we'll say that I'm
learning from you. I'm learning how you sign your name. I'm learning
how you write a prescription. And I can pay you 350 bucks if you'll
let me do that.
Pharma is not pretty I know that.
This is beyond the pale.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090809231252693
Background:
Neurontin is a fairly safe anti-epilepsy drug. It has a comparatively low side-effect profile and its
hard to overdose on. It is not the world's most effective drug, but the side effects are not bad. In fact my sister took this for a long time for epilepsy. Anyway, P-D decided they needed to make more money off the drug. AED (anti-epileptic-drugs) don't make the big bucks. So they did a lot of bad things and including most recently sending a some shady guy to a witness's house the day before he was to testify against them...
Anyway the article is huge. This particular case was dismissed, but the testimony is damning to the P-D/Pfizer.
...
Q. Did this gentleman at any point in time come out to your house yesterday?
A. Yes. At that point my wife said I'm sorry, I don't have anything to
say to you, and hung up on him. He called back about 30 minutes later
and insisted that he speak to her and that he had an urgent message to
deliver to me and needed to see me face to face, and that he wasn't
going to accept no from her if she didn't put us in contact, he would
-- he would not let it go, he would come to what he believed to be her
home. He would -- this was -- the quote was, you will see me, this
isn't going to end.
...
And so I was prepared for that type of very technical scientific
conversation, even though I knew that I was applying for -- I had
initially applied for a -- excuse me, a sales job. At this point I
knew that I was actually applying for the medical and scientific
liaison position. So I expected a science sort of discussion. ... So
when I got down there, the conversations were much more, in
retrospect, sales oriented. The primary theme of the -- the theme that
stood out was -- everybody that I interviewed with was -- either asked
me or prepared me to answer questions about times when I've had to
bend the rules. Give me examples of when you found yourself in
conflict or you found yourself in a place where you were working in a
gray area, how did you handle that?
...
He'll tell you that that wasn't the only thing; that the drug company
also told him to go out there and to convince the doctors to write
what's called megadosing. You see, it's not enough that the drug
company is going to try and expand their profit margins by selling it
off-label. The FDA only approves it in dosages up to, I think at the
time it was 1,800 milligrams, but the salespeople are told to go out
there and to convince the doctors that they can do not 1,800. "Give
them 21, give them 25, give them 28, give them 31, give them 4,000,
give them 4,800 a day, more and more and more pills. Get it up as high
as you can."
...
They would go to the doctors, and they would say, "Doctor, I can't pay
you to write a prescription, but I'll tell you what I can do. If
you'll let me watch you write the prescription, we'll say that I'm
learning from you. I'm learning how you sign your name. I'm learning
how you write a prescription. And I can pay you 350 bucks if you'll
let me do that.