Novartis and Roche fined $250M for illegal collaboration

[haraldo]

Italian antitrust authorities said on Wednesday that they had fined two Swiss pharmaceutical companies, Novartis and Roche Holdings, a total of $250 million for colluding to keep doctors from prescribing a relatively inexpensive eye treatment in favor of a more expensive drug.


The authorities said the two companies had sought to steer doctors away from Avastin, an anticancer drug developed by Genentech that has been used for years as an off-label treatment for common eye problems. Instead, they said, the companies had tried to “channel demand toward the much more expensive drug Lucentis, through an artificial distinction between the two products,” essentially by overstating the dangers of Avastin use.

The Italian authorities discovered numerous messages between Roche and Novartis in which the two companies discussed what kinds of communications would be needed to induce doctors and hospitals to adopt the more expensive product.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/business/international/italy-fines-novartis-and-roche-in-collusion-case.html?_r=0

 

[its phillip]

Good. I'm sure the big pharmaceuticals do stuff like this all the time though :/

 

[bikemig]

The problem is bad in the US where advertisements for drugs are designed to push people towards name brand drugs for all sorts of problems they had no idea they needed. Also we have one of the most expensive medical care systems in the world and fairly poor public health outcomes (relative to other wealthy, developed nations): Health care in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. So look at the bright side, you could be living in the US of A where you'd pay a heck of a lot more money for health care and enjoy a low life expectancy compared to other OECD countries to boot but you would get to watch a lot of infomercials on which life style drugs you need to buy to help drive up the cost of health care a bit more.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I don't see any issue here...keep it moving...look a bird....

Good. I'm sure the big pharmaceuticals do stuff like this all the time though :/

 

[haraldo]

The problem is bad in the US where advertisements for drugs are designed to push people towards name brand drugs for all sorts of problems they had no idea they needed. Also we have one of the most expensive medical care systems in the world and fairly poor public health outcomes (relative to other wealthy, developed nations): Health care in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. So look at the bright side, you could be living in the US of A where you'd pay a heck of a lot more money for health care and enjoy a low life expectancy compared to other OECD countries to boot but you would get to watch a lot of infomercials on which life style drugs you need to buy to help drive up the cost of health care a bit more.

No-one pushes you to take medicine you don't need, you always do have a choice

 

[Hyperion]

Smart people see the choices, 80% dont .... And isnt this how the economy works?


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[markw]

"Big Pharma wields enormous influence over the prescription drug and medical device markets around the globe. In fact, in the United States, the industry contributes heavily to the annual budget of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is charged with regulating drugs and devices made by those same companies."

Dunno about over there but over here "Big Pharma" spends more on lobbying politicians than any other industry, almost twice as much as the the second biggest group, the Insurance lobby, Waddaminnit...

 

[herbu]

$250M? Normal cost of doing business.

Had my annual physical a couple weeks ago. Dr asked if I thought my testosterone was ok. I thought of a 1 minute commercial for some "Low T" drug on TV now. They spend 45 seconds of it listing the "possible", then "common" side effects. I said mine is fine.

 

[j_garcia]

That fine is small potatoes compared to how much they made off the drugs. Not the price of doing business, more like - every once in a while you get a speeding ticket and accept that the rest of the time you didn't get caught makes up for paying it one time.

 

[haraldo]

Agree, fines could have been multiplied by a factor of 20, would be more fair