Doctors pushed HIV medication on patients in exchange for lavish meals, trips and cash: prosecutors

A pharmaceutical company, which allegedly paid doctors to the doctors to push medication on HIV/AIDS, agreed to pay a fine of over $ 200 million to settle Civil law submitted by federal prosecutors.

. government He claimed that Gilead had prompted doctors to prescribe a lot of drugs for HIV/AIDS in exchange for fees, meals and travel costs for healthcare employees. Prosecutors said that the company has created a program in which the practitioner of healthcare, which spoke or participated in the events of Gilead Speaker, and used the events as a way to provide jet.

“Over the years, Gilead illegally tried to increase the sale of his drugs on HIV, using his speaker programs to doctors for doctors. As preserved, Gilead spent tens of millions of dollars on these programs, including over $ 20 million on charges for speaking and millions of more wins of meals, alcohol and travels HIV drugs and increase sales ” Said American lawyer Jay Clayton.

“Thanks to this settlement, Gilead took responsibility for his behavior and agreed to pay a significant financial penalty. The message is clear, companies that illegally exhaust the dollars of taxpayers from federal healthcare programs, will be responsible,” he said.

The government also claimed that the program led to false claims for the healthcare programs submitted and paid by federal programs and paid by Gilead HIV. For this reason, over $ 176 million will go as compensation to the government, and the rest will be transferred to several states.

A certain HIV speaker who received over USD 300,000 in general the fee of the Historian, wrote prescriptions for Gilead HIV drugs, which caused over $ 6 million in Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare payments.

Gilead HIV antiretroviral drugs are expensive, and for example, Medicare pays over USD 1000 for the monthly supply of Compler®. From 2011 to November 2017, the company conducted HIV speaker programs, allegedly for educational purposes.

However, prosecutors say that many events had little educational value and that Gilead invited the same doctors to the same program. Events were often held in fancy restaurants in New York, including James Beard House, del Stawo, Asiate, Palma, Vauclue, Ilili and Limani.

Other desirable locations of events are Hawaii, Miami and Nowy Orlean. Prosecutors noticed that sometimes the location was elected in response to the HIV speaker’s request for booking a program in this city.