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Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

justice.gov

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Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#31

Post by calvinmorrison »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #10
z3c0 wrote: post #6

I really take issue with "settlements" of such a scale that don't equate to an admission of guilt. It's essentially buying a get of jail free card. If any individual were facing criminal charges, they would have to plea guilty before any easy-way-out is considered. If it would have taken a billion dollars in legal fees to prove your innocence, I'm going to take a chance and suggest that these claims likely weren't "f…

The movie "Law Abiding Citizen" [0] gives voice to similar frustrations. A very thought-provoking movie, but definitely not a good choice for "date night". [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Abiding_Citizen

Our beloved former mayor has a cameo in the movie. Hopefully he used it as leverage to allow them to film in City Hall. He's seen in the court, holding the bible up to a person being sworn in. The first time I saw it I cackled. I do miss that Nutter.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#32

Post by claytongulick »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #22

Quoted post unavailable.

It was so bizarre for me to watch this mentality through covid.

Like, suddenly there was zero reason to scrutinize the claims made by pharma. The same folks who have been repeatedly held both criminal and civil liability for wrong doing - were suddenly handed a blank check and blanket immunity.

And no one is allowed to even suggest that we may want to ask questions or look closer without being called an anti-vaxxer.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#33

Post by daniel-cussen »

notch656a wrote: post #25
daniel-cussen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in fact, when a corporation does something disgustingly criminal, like Abbott did to me twice, with Depakote and Clozapine, second time I was wise to their shit, dodged their shit, they sell shit, they're shit salesmen. Door to door. Knock knock who's there? A shit salesman. A shit salesman who? Abbott, we're doing another round poisoning you in a way that we know is wrong but will not be provable for 8 years, you…

I've always wondered if anti-psychotics were worth it for the populations taking them. Seems like a shitty choice -- dull/blunt the mind with questionable near-poison or experience the full 'richness' of a mind that society finds maladaptive. I've never been in a position to be recommended or asked to take such drugs, but from my study of them I'm pretty sure I'd personally have probably chosen to risk dealing with r…

There's a third choice. Madman that works the system.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#34

Post by rgrieselhuber »

claytongulick wrote: post #32
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #22

Quoted post unavailable.

It was so bizarre for me to watch this mentality through covid. Like, suddenly there was zero reason to scrutinize the claims made by pharma. The same folks who have been repeatedly held both criminal and civil liability for wrong doing - were suddenly handed a blank check and blanket immunity. And no one is allowed to even suggest that we may want to ask questions or look closer without being called an anti-vaxxer.

And now we are all supposed to pretend like it never even happened.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#35

Post by s1artibartfast »

weaksauce wrote: post #20
colechristensen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what is the right size?

enough so it's not just an expense they can pencil in the books for the next time they do it.

Everything is an expense no matter what. Even if you were to have prison time or capital punishment, that is just an expense to someone else. E.g. How much for a fall guy

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#36

Post by from »

The interesting thing is that what they did wouldn’t even be a crime if the doctors they paid didn’t work with Medicare patients. The anti kickback statute only applies to government funded health insurance programs. These same laws are also why manufacturers can’t offer copay assistance programs to people on Medicare. Applying these laws everywhere could probably reduce waste dramatically.

Also there’s a very high ROI and not very often discussed career path: Work in sales at big pharma company or home health care company or really any compare that bills Medicare, find False Claim Act violations and a lawyer to represent you, and collect 15-30% of settlement (should be 8 to 9 figures if you played your cards right).

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#37

Post by Andy_G11 »

atestu wrote: post #28

Did physicians go to jail for endangering patients? Lose their license at least? “The Pharmacist” on Netflix really opened my eye to how above the law doctors are.

It would be great if it was possible to make it easier to assess unscrupulous behaviour by medical professionals and to weed out bad actors whilst simultaneously screening out damaging but unjustified claims about them made by patients or detractors with an axe to grind.

I do have concerns about how easy it is for some specialists to create a gravy train for themselves by simply requiring regular 'assessment' visits for patients under their care or observation at what seems to be a ludicrous rate for five minutes of their time.

In the UK there is an ombudsman that people can report their concerns to, but what then? - How anonymous is the patient really and how significantly do they compromise their relationship with what is actually a small pool of people who all know each other and are subject to the pressures of their professional clique's members?

How can this be improved, because even if they are sure that they are being overcharged and poorly treated there is still an incentive for patients not to go up against the medical establishment?

Pricing transparency is one thing which can help, but if there is a departure from the 'expected' level, then what? Is the right thing to do simply for the patient to always assess the rate vs service and report anything which is an outlier without concern for potential downstream consequences from their specialists? Or does pragmatism prevail, even if it perpetuates poor behaviour by the medical professionals?

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#38

Post by missedthecue »

hammock wrote: post #8
z3c0 wrote: post #6

I really take issue with "settlements" of such a scale that don't equate to an admission of guilt. It's essentially buying a get of jail free card. If any individual were facing criminal charges, they would have to plea guilty before any easy-way-out is considered. If it would have taken a billion dollars in legal fees to prove your innocence, I'm going to take a chance and suggest that these claims likely weren't "f…

What's more, these "headline" settlement numbers usually go before a judge and get knocked down to 10-30% of what they originally were. The new (final) settlement number rarely makes the headlines

That's only for jury cases where the jury approves some huge number presented by the prosecutor. In this case, Biogen has agreed to pay the sum, as noted in the article.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#39

Post by missedthecue »

pGuitar wrote: post #5
CountSessine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their net income for 2021 was $1058M on about $10B of revenue, so this mostly wipes out 1 year of profits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not sure how long they have been doing this, but even if it was only one year, the fine is too small.

According to the article, it occured between 2009 and 2014. Not sure exactly how much profit they made off of it and it's probably not easy to find out, but of the three drugs they marketed in unlawful ways, Tysabri for instance had US sales of $58m in the 08-09 year. And that's sales not pure profit after costs.

Re: Biogen agrees to pay $900M to settle drug kickbacks allegations

#40

Post by ada1981 »

loeg wrote: post #24
alephxyz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The United States agrees that Relator shall be awarded a share of $250,000,000 ofthe Federal Settlement Amount paid by Biogen.

Wow, I was expecting closer to 10%, which would still have been a ton of money ($84-90M depending on if it's of the Fed cut or total). 28-30% is huge.

Thus isn’t 30%.

The Fed gets $250MM, and he gets an unlisted percent of that amount.

He’s not getting $250MM.

The rest seems to be going to the states.

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