According to the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (“OPDP”), Marc Beer, the CEO of biopharmaceutical firm Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, overstepped his bounds when he allegedly made misleading statements about Aegerion’s cholesterol-lowering drug, Juxtapid™ on two televised appearances on CNBC. As a result, Aegerion received a warning letter earlier this month from OPDP, admonishing Beer for his transgressions, accusing the Company of misbranding Juxtapid™ and asking for corrective action. Although it makes business sense for Aegerion to “play ball” with the FDA and do whatever it takes to convince the agency that there was no intent to promote Juxtapid™ off-label, Beer’s comments are a reminder of the free speech issue embedded in any discussion about a drug or device product that falls outside the friendly confines of the product’s labeling. [Read more...]
Aegerion CEO’s Remarks On Television Highlight Off-Label Free Speech Issue Once Again
J&J to Pay $2.2 Billion To End Long-Standing Investigations By Feds
Charges of off-label marketing and kickback payments to physicians and long-term care pharmacy provider Omnicare are behind a $2.2 billion settlement agreement between Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in which the global health care giant finally resolves criminal and civil liability involving Risperdal and two other prescription drugs. The eye-popping figure makes this the third largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. [Read more...]
Medtronic InFUSE Cases Signal That Off-Label Promotion Probably Not Illegal
A majority of plaintiffs seeking damages based on off-label promotion of Medtronic’s InFUSE Bone Graft system have been stopped in their tracks following several recent federal court decisions holding that such challenges were barred on preemption grounds. Indeed, with the exception of two district court cases out of the Ninth Circuit, these preemption rulings not only underscore the limits of off-label promotion arguments in medical device cases, but also show that courts remain skeptical about whether off-label promotion is illegal under federal law. [Read more...]
Plaintiff’s Lawyers File RICO Class Action Suit Against Abbott Over Depakote Off-Label Promotion
A well-known plaintiff’s law firm with a stable of union pension fund clients has used the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), which was originally enacted in 1970 to combat organized crime, to file a class action lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories for the off-label promotions of Depakote. Unless Abbott and similarly situated big pharma companies intend to fork over hundreds of millions (if not billions) of more dollars to plaintiff’s lawyers, they need to fight such suits tooth and nail. [Read more...]
Pfizer $149 Million Rapamune Settlement Is More Proof That It’s Business As Usual With The Feds
Two False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuits are being resolved as part of a $491 million settlement between Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now a division of Pfizer, Inc., and the U.S. DOJ. This time around, Wyeth’s misconduct was based on off-label sales tactics for Rapamune®, an immunosuppressive drug that FDA approved for use in renal (kidney) transplant patients. Unfortunately for the pharmaceutical industry, Pfizer’s latest compliance woes are a stark reminder that off-label cases are anything but passé. [Read more...]
