These 10 drugs each rang up more than $4 billion in U.S. sales last year

A whopping $450 billion was spent in the United States on prescription drugs last year.

Topping the list, perhaps unsurprisingly, are medications whose patents were still in force or had recently expired. When a patent expires, generic versions — or biosimilar versions of biologic drugs — can become available, driving down costs that in turn make them accessible to more patients.

That’s one reason why none of the drugs that brought in the most money in sales also showed up on our list of most-prescribed drugs.

The following list is based on a recent report on prescription medicine use and spending compiled by the QuintilesIMS Institute. The report tracked what’s known as invoice spending — looking at wholesaler transactions without adjusting for off-invoice discount and rebate estimates. read more »

Wells Fargo Whistleblower Prevails in OSHA Investigation of Retaliation Claims

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has ordered Wells Fargo to reinstate and pay approximately $577,500 damages to a former branch manager in Pomona who was terminated for complaining about salespersons creating unauthorized accounts to meet unrealistic sales targets.  This is the second Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) order in 2017 ruling for a Wells Fargo whistleblower.  Approximately three months ago, OSHA ordered Wells Fargo to reinstate another whistleblower and pay approximately $5.4M in damages for violating the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower protection law.

Wells Fargo Whistleblower’s Protected Conduct

OSHA found that Wells Fargo fired the whistleblower in September 2011 because she opposed the bank’s private bankers opening customer accounts and enrolling customers in bank products without their knowledge, consent or appropriate disclosures.  These disclosures relate to the unlawful sales practices that resulted in a $185 million fine imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other bank regulators.  The CFPB found that Wells Fargo opened approximately 2 million deposit and credit-card accounts without customers’ approval to satisfy sales goals. read more »

Think New Jersey’s corrupt? There’s a $25,000 reward if you can help prove it

Two new programs to fight public corruption in New Jersey were rolled out at the beginning of May.

They were supposed to end next week on August 1, but things have gone so well that they’ve both been extended until after Election Day, officials say.

The first program offers a reward of up to $25,000 for tips that lead to the conviction of a public official on corruption charges. The second initiative is a whistle-blower program that allows lower-level defendants in corruption cases to avoid prosecution if they reveal schemes to law enforcement, so that more culpable defendants can be prosecuted.

New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino said the response to both programs has been very encouraging.

“We’ve received dozens of calls and leads on potential corruption cases which we’re actively investigating now, and we’re very pleased with the response,” he said. “So pleased in fact, that we’ve decided to continue the reward program and the whistleblower program through until Nov. 15 of this year.” read more »

A Coder’s Obligation to Report Noncompliance

Unfortunately, there are times when an individual reports legitimate compliance concerns and does not see actions being taken to correct the concern. In these situations, a person may wish to “blow the whistle” and contact an agency outside of the organization to file a lawsuit. This type of lawsuit is known as a qui tam lawsuit.

Qui tam lawsuits are a type of civil lawsuit whistleblowers bring under the False Claims Act, a law that rewards whistleblowers if their qui tam cases recover funds for the government. Qui tam is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase meaning “who as well for the king as for himself sues in this matter.”

Qui tam cases are different from other types of lawsuits, such as those involving personal injuries, because the person bringing the lawsuit is not the one who has been harmed (Phillips and Cohen, 2016).

A recent example of qui tam is the South Florida case where physician Mario Baez, a partner in a physician practice, turned whistleblower on his partner when he determined that his partner was submitting fraudulent claims. read more »

Connaught failings show FCA must improve whistleblower treatment

The contribution which whistleblowers play in our society must not be ignored; they provide invaluable information about corruption at companies and in government at their own expense, even if they are unlikely be the star of the next Marvel comic book film. 

To the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the information which whistleblowers provide is essential to the work they do, whether it is information on banks, investment schemes or even at advice firms.

So it is disturbing to think of the way the FCA handled the Connaught whistleblower, George Patellis, and even worse now to see the regulator continuing to refuse to hold its hands up. read more »

BEWARE: Whistleblowers Can “Out” You to the IRS!

Not only should companies worry about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) auditing their returns, but they also have to be aware of a potential assault from within. Indeed, current and former employees have an incentive to air all of your tax issues with the hope of being rewarded for the information.

Section 7623(b) was added to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) in 2005, and pays potentially large monetary rewards for so-called tax whistleblowers. To qualify for remuneration, a whistleblower must meet several conditions to qualify for the Section 7623(b) award program: (1) submit the confidential information under penalties of perjury to the IRS’s Whistleblower Office; (2) the information must relate to a tax issue for which the taxpayer (if the IRS found out) would be liable for tax, penalties and/or interest of more than $2 million; and (3) involve a taxpayer whose gross income exceeds $200,000 the tax year at issue. If the information substantially contributes to an administrative or judicial action that results in the collection, the IRS will pay an award of at least 15 percent, but not more than 30 percent of the collected proceeds resulting from the administrative or judicial action (including related actions). read more »

Bitcoin Options Exchange Wins Approval From CFTC

Traders tired of quiet U.S. markets may soon have something more volatile to bet on: bitcoin options.

On Monday, a bitcoin options exchange called LedgerX won approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to clear bitcoin options, making it the first U.S. federally regulated platform of its kind. The venue will allow traders to place options bets on virtual currencies, which have recently posted some of the wildest swings across global markets.

LedgerX, which plans to launch in the fall, will offer institutional investors bitcoin puts and calls, contracts that allow them to sell or buy, respectively, at designated prices.

The CFTC’s decision marks a victory of a three-year-plus effort by founders of New York-based LedgerX, overseen by Ledger Holdings. Co-founders Paul Chou, chief executive officer, and Juthica Chou, president, were traders at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before taking the helm of LedgerX. Chief Technology Officer Zach Dexter, also a co-founder, was a software engineer.

The CFTC’s approval also represents a divergence to how two U.S. regulatory agencies have treated bitcoin, the largest virtual currency with a market capitalization of about $45 billion, according to coinmarketcap.com. read more »

What makes whistleblowers speak out while others stay silent about wrongdoing

Gold-medal gymnast Dominique Moceanu was once a self-described people pleaser, laser-focused on keeping her coaches, fans and parents happy. But she endured years of abusive coaching on her way to the top, and as an adult, she decided that speaking out about the problems in her sport was more important than securing everyone's approval. “I always told myself if I had an opportunity to help others, then I would,” she said.

 

So when HBO's “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” asked her to tell her story in 2008, she accepted. In that interview and a subsequent book, “Off Balance,” she revealed abuse she had witnessed and gone through. Top coaches Martha and Bela Karolyi, she said, belittled young gymnasts, harangued them about their diets, and encouraged them to train while injured. read more »