MD$ on the Take: My Career-Ending Expose - Novartis

"There is a pathologically intimate relationship between corporations and the U.S. government- their collusion is expressed in the revolving door. "

In the year 2003, I discovered CafePharma.  CafePharma is basically an online venting board for pharmaceutical representatives.  Such representatives who post on this board often do so with overt anger and disgust. 

My uneasiness about bribing doctors was validated by what  representatives from many pharmaceutical companies wrote on this board.  The money we paid targeted doctors are kickbacks.  By paying such doctors, we as sales representatives are violating the federal anti-kickback statute.

With Novartis, they took things a step further:  They sent instructions to their sales force to remind doctors paid by representatives that they are obligated to prescribe Novartis pharmaceuticals whenever possible.  This, of course, potentially clouds the clinical judgments of such doctors, and as a result, adversely affects the restoration of health obligated by the health care provider.

In the Spring of 2009, my whistle blower lawsuit was unsealed by the D.O.J., and, even though the evidence I presented was overwhelming, the government did not intervene in the case that I filed.

I suspect that Novartis bribed the D.O.J. not to intervene. There is a pathologically intimate relationship between corporations and the U.S. government- their collusion is expressed in the revolving door.