Firm Gets Subpoena for Bribery
February 28th, 2012 // 2:06 pm @ jmpickett
File this under ‘what did they do right?’ Put another way, Warner Chilcott may have done just about everything wrong. Consider that Warner Chilcott and some ‘non-executive employees’ in the sales division last week received a subpoena from the US Attorney in Boston for a wide array of activities.
To wit, the feds want info and documents on “sales and marketing activities, payments to people who are in a position to recommend drugs, medical education, consultancies, prior authorization processes, clinical trials, off-label use and employee training (regarding laws and regulations about off-label info and physician remuneration)…,†according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (which you can read here on page 41).
What’s more, the feds want this information pertaining to “current key products.†What are the key products? These would include the Actonel med for osteoperosis; the Doryx antibiotic; the Asacol treatment for ulcerative collitis; the Loestrin and Femcon oral contraceptives, and the Enablex drug for overactive bladder (here is the complete product line up). In other words, just about every sales and marketing activity is now being probed.
This is not the first time that a federal agency has scrutinized the Warner Chilcott sales and marketing team for going its own way. Last year, a sales rep posted her own promotional video on You Tube and did so at the direction of her district manager. We know this because the FDA sent a letter to Warner Chilcott saying the video was the subject of a Bad Ad complaint
