Study: Doctors received more than $46 million from drug companies marketing opioids

One in 12 doctors has received money from drug companies marketing prescription opioid medications, according to a study released Wednesday afternoon.

Researchers at Boston Medical Center found that from 2013 to 2015, 68,177 doctors received more than $46 million in payments from drug companies pushing powerful painkillers. Researchers believe it is the first study to look at the practice of pharmaceutical companies marketing opioids to physicians.

“The next step is to understand these links between payments,” said Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and author of the study, and “prescribing practices and overdose deaths.” read more »

One man’s leaker is another man’s whistleblower

Though the word “whistleblower” was reportedly coined by consumer activist Ralph Nader in the early 1970s, it covers activity as old as the Republic. In the winter of 1777, months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 10 revolutionary sailors and marines met in secret to discuss their concerns about the commander of the Continental Navy and his brutal treatment of captured British sailors. They presented their grievances to the Continental Congress, which then voted to suspend the commander. After the commander retaliated by filing suit against the whistleblowers, Congress passed America’s first whistleblower protection act.

Whistleblowers, generally, are the insiders — in government, in industry, in the scientific and political establishments — whose moral compass compels them to come forward when those around them are engaged in wrongful behavior. In the late 1960s through the 1970s, the whistleblowers were consumer advocates like Nader, who used information gathered from industry insiders to argue that General Motors had placed an unsafe vehicle, the Corvair, on our roadways. In 1996, Jeffrey Wigand, a former vice president of research at the tobacco company Brown & Williamson, claimed that the company intentionally manipulated its tobacco blend with ammonia to increase the effect of nicotine in cigarette smoke. His truth-telling helped change the way cigarettes were marketed and regulated. Whistleblowers enable the essential oversight that a free press brings — as with the leak of the Pentagon Papers, which showed that the government knew early on that the Vietnam War could not be won, or the Watergate reporting, which disclosed criminality at the highest levels of government, or leaks by combat serviceman during the Vietnam War that revealed the execution of civilians at My Lai.

Of course, whistleblowers will be attacked — as “leakers” or “snitches,” even un-American. But in fact, in statute after statute, federal and state, year after year, whistleblowing is encouraged. In 1986, for example, Congress passed the federal False Claims Act, which allows citizens to bring suit in the name of the United States government against those individuals or entities that have caused the wrongful expenditure of government dollars. read more »

Walgreens Is Latest Target in Drug Price Inflation Lawsuits

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. participates in a fraudulent scheme to inflate generic drug prices and overcharge patients, a new proposed class action alleges.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 9 in federal court, comes two days after similar allegations were levied against CVS Health Corp.

The pharmacies are accused of charging customers with health insurance more for generic drugs than they would pay without insurance. The customer suing Walgreens says he was required to pay nearly $22 for a drug that would have cost him only $10 had he paid cash. read more »

Where Dodd-Frank Didn't Go Far Enough

An exemption for auto lenders has led to a dangerous bubble.

There are undoubtedly some areas where the Dodd-Frank financial reform went too far. But as the Trump administration and Republican legislators look for what they can roll back, they should keep in mind one area where it didn’t go far enough: auto lending.

Back in 2010, when Congress adopted rules designed to limit the lending excesses that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, auto dealers managed to carve out an exemption for themselves. As a result, their behavior since then offers a sort of counterfactual: How might lenders have acted if Dodd-Frank had never happened?

The evidence isn’t pretty. Subprime auto credit has boomed since mid-2010, exhibiting all the hallmarks of the mortgage bubble. Dealers are putting people into cars and loans they can’t afford, because there’s money to be made by bumping up balances and interest rates. Banks are buying the loans with little concern for borrowers’ ability to pay, because they can package them into securities for sale to investors desperate for yield. read more »

Stericycle subpoenaed in federal anti-corruption probes

Stericycle Inc. SRCL said late Wednesday it is cooperating with federal anti-corruption probes into its business practices in Latin America. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the medical-waste disposal company said the SEC subpoenaed company records on June 12 related to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Department of Justice has launched a parallel probe. read more »

Judge rejects attempt to throw out Sen. Bob Menendez's corruption indictment before trial

Sen. Bob Menendez's trial on bribery and other charges will go ahead as planned after a federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Supreme Court ruling did not require him to dismiss the indictment.

But U.S. District Judge William Walls could still rule on the arguments made by Menendez lawyers after hearing prosecutors' evidence at the trial. Jury selection is due to begin later this month, with the trial itself starting after Labor Day.

Menendez's attorneys had argued that the high court's reversal of the conviction of Robert McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia, changed what the government has to show to prove bribery so much that the senator's April 2015 indictment should be thrown out.

Menendez is accused of using his office to benefit the business interests of co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a friend and Florida eye specialist. Melgen is accused of bribing Menendez with more than $700,000 in contributions to political committees, as well as free flights on Melgen's private jet, lodging in his home at a Dominican Republic resort, golf outings, meals, and a stay at a hotel suite in Paris. read more »