Please tell me more about your "informed opinion", I only do "Public Corruption", but it's a related field.......
www.justice.gov
That’s the reality that federal prosecutors have reminded the public about with
an announced $678 million settlement with Novartis over the drug maker’s doctor prescribing- and kickbacks-scheme. And it is what
Gilead has shown with its planned pricing for remdesivir. It is an anti-viral drug that has shown modest effect in shortening the course of Covid-19 infections and was developed with taxpayer funding.
The Novartis case also paints a damning picture of doctors’ complicity in taking bribes to defraud taxpayers (specifically the Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Affairs programs) by pushing company products, including the high blood pressure drugs Lotrel, Diovan, Exforge, Tekturna, Valturna and Tekamlo, and the Type 2 diabetes medication Starlix.
As Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,
described the bad acts in a statement:
“For more than a decade, Novartis spent hundreds of millions of dollars on so-called speaker programs, including speaking fees, exorbitant meals, and top-shelf alcohol that were nothing more than bribes to get doctors across the country to prescribe Novartis’s drugs. Giving these cash payments and other lavish goodies interferes with the duty of doctors to choose the best treatment for their patients and increases drug costs for everyone.”
The goodies dispensed— besides huge honorariums — included travel and entertainment. Prosecutors detailed the pricey feeding and watering holes at which Novartis wined and dined doctors, including: “Masa, Daniel, Gramercy Tavern, Il Mulino, Babbo, Peter Luger, Le Bernardin, and Eleven Madison Park in New York City; Charlie Palmer’s in Washington, D.C.; Morton’s Steakhouse and the Four Seasons in Chicago; Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami; Abacus, Nobu, and the Four Seasons in Dallas; Gary Danko in San Francisco; Patina and Matsuhisa in Los Angeles; Grill 225 in South Carolina; and Commander’s Palace in New Orleans.”