We’ve talked about conflict of interest in medicine and the perversion of drug companies paying providers to use and recommend their product. Novartis appears to be the poster-child for such behavior.
Authorities said the Basel-based company for a decade lavished healthy speaking fees and “opulent” meals, including a nearly $10,000 dinner for three at the Japanese restaurant, Nobu, to induce doctors to prescribe its drugs.
They said this led to the Medicare and Medicaid programs paying millions of dollars in reimbursements based on kickback-tainted claims for medication such as hypertension drugs Lotrel and Valturna and the diabetes drug Starlix.
Read the article for more.
Medicynical Note: The US leads the world in drug costs, spending on health care/capita and bankruptcy due to medical expenses. We have a highly developed sophisticated system not of health care but rather of revenue generation. For companies like Novartis and many others health care is not really their main interest.
Medicynic 