{"id":10571,"date":"2025-01-29T10:47:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=10571"},"modified":"2025-01-29T10:47:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:47:27","slug":"pfizer-to-pay-60-million-in-false-claims-settlement-over-drug-kickbacks-doj-announces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/pfizer-to-pay-60-million-in-false-claims-settlement-over-drug-kickbacks-doj-announces\/","title":{"rendered":"Pfizer To Pay $60 Million In False Claims Settlement Over Drug Kickbacks, DOJ Announces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tip of the iceberg, but an excellent example of compromised white coats and corrupt pharmaceutical companies. I have a whistleblower post<\/a> with a long list of violations from Pharmaceutical companies, and even though the fines are large to us, they’re a small part of the profits made and considered part of doing business. Do a search for “pfizer whistleblower<\/a>” on my site and you’ll find even more examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/medical\/pfizer-pay-60-million-false-claims-settlement-over-drug-kickbacks-doj-announces<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

By Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay $60 million as part of a settlement to resolve false claims<\/strong> allegations relating to improper physician payments by one of its subsidiaries, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The DOJ said that between March 2020 and September 2022, Pfizer subsidiary Biohaven Pharmaceuticals violated the federal False Claims Act by providing speaker honoraria and meals at high-end restaurants to doctors,<\/strong> to induce them to prescribe Nurtec ODT, a migraine drug, more often.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some speaker programs were attended multiple times by the same doctors, resulting in no educational benefit, or attended by doctors\u2019 spouses, family members, and colleagues who had no educational need to be there, the department added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The False Claims Act anti\u2011kickback statute referenced by the DOJ bars entities from paying or offering anything of value to trigger the referral of services to items that are covered under federal health care programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or others. It\u2019s designed to make sure that the judgments made by health care providers will not be \u201ccompromised by improper financial incentives,\u201d the statement said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to sue on behalf of the government and share in recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPatients deserve to know that their doctor is prescribing medications based on their doctor\u2019s medical judgment, and not as a result of financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies<\/strong>,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross with the Western District of New York in a statement. \u201cThis settlement reflects our commitment to hold those who violate the laws accountable, regardless of their status or prestige.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer, which bought<\/a> out Biohaven in October 2022, ended the speaker programs for Nurtec at that time. Pfizer acquired the company for about $11.6 billion, making Biohaven a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer did not admit to any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are pleased to put this legacy matter behind us, so that we can continue to focus on the needs of patients,<\/strong>\u201d a spokesperson for Pfizer, which also made the commonly used mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, said in a statement last week as the DOJ announced the settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson also told news outlets that \u201cthe settlement relates to alleged conduct at Biohaven before Pfizer\u2019s acquisition of the company in October 2022 and does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settlement resolves an August 2021 lawsuit filed in the Rochester, New York, federal court by Patricia Frattasio, a former Biohaven neuroscience sales specialist. Frattasio will receive about $8.4 million from the settlement. About $41.8 million will go to the federal government and $9.5 million will go to state Medicaid programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Epoch Times has contacted Pfizer for additional comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a number of other major U.S. drug manufacturers, Pfizer has paid out a number of settlements over the years, including<\/a> one for $24 million in which prosecutors alleged that it also violated the False Claims Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer in 2009 also reached a $2.3 billion settlement in what the DOJ billed<\/a> at the time as the \u201clargest health care fraud settlement\u201d in the history of the United States. In that case, the company illegally promoted certain pharmaceutical products that ran afoul of the False Claims Act following whistleblower complaints, officials said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tip of the iceberg, but an excellent example of compromised white coats and corrupt pharmaceutical companies. I have a whistleblower post with a long list of violations from Pharmaceutical companies, and even though the fines are large to us, they’re a small part of the profits made and considered part of doing business. Do a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10572,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10571\/revisions\/10572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}