Punishing Health Care Fraud — Is the GSK Settlement Sufficient? | New England Journal of Medicine
I found this note lurking in one of my electronic filing systems. Hiding from the light, perhaps. The quotes below are from a 2012 NEJM article written by Kevin Outterson, J.D., LL.M. I wonder if much has changed since then. If you want to know more about how pharma works I would recommend Graham Dutfield’s book: That High Design of Purest Gold: A Critical History of the Pharmaceutical Industry, 1880-2020. His voice is reasoned and pitched perfectly (IMHO), but judging from the price of the book the publishers want their share of the gold too.
The Department of Justice has announced the largest settlement ever in a health care fraud case: GlaxoSmithKline will plead guilty to three criminal counts and settle civil charges, paying $3 billion to the federal and state governments. But is that sufficient?
One partial solution would be to impose penalties on corporate executives rather than just the company as a whole. Boston whistleblower attorney Robert M. Thomas, Jr., embraces this approach: “GSK is a recidivist. How can a company commit a $1 billion crime and no individual is held responsible?”
You only have to look at the new obesity therapies or the distribution of skin altering agents to know that it is just down to money. The costs of doing business, coupled with — in the UK at least — incompetent regulators who readily accept the money lenders in Medicine’s temple.