Pfizer to Pay Nearly $60 Million in Doctor Kickback Scheme. Is This a Common Practice?
Pfizer Moves for Money
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is slated to pay nearly $60 million in fines as a resolution to accusations a company it acquired paid kickbacks to doctors specifically to prescribe a migraine medication. The medication marketed as Nurtec ODT, also known as Rimegepant, was endorsed in television commercials by the celebrities Whoopi Goldberg and Lady Gaga. The kickback scheme took place from March 1, 2020, until September 30, 2022, and was orchestrated by Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding who owned the drug then.
Pfizer acquired Biohaven in October of 2022. “The settlement relates to alleged conduct at Biohaven before Pfizer acquired the company in October 2022 and does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing,” a Pfizer spokesperson said. “We are pleased to put this legacy matter behind us so that we can continue to focus on the needs of patients.”
Paying Doctors / Medicare Fraud
Prosecutors allege the kickback scheme involved Biohaven providing doctors with “improper remuneration” in the form of speaker payments as well as high-end meals at expensive restaurants to get the physicians to prescribe Nurtec. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the federal anti-kickback statute prohibits companies from paying doctors or offering them anything of value to persuade the doctors to prescribe the referral of drugs or services paid for by Medicare, Medicaid or any federal healthcare program. The statute is intended to ensure the judgment of medical providers are not compromised by “improper financial incentives”.
The Justice Department issued a statement saying, “Through this settlement and others, the government has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring that drug companies do not use kickbacks to influence physician prescribing,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will use every tool at its disposal to prevent pharmaceutical manufacturers from undermining the objectivity of treatment decisions by health care providers.”
The kickbacks stopped when Pfizer ended Biohaven’s Nurtec speaker program. However, there is a lingering question: whether this is the only instance of doctors receiving payment to prescribe a particular medication.
Pandemic Payoffs
Given the amount of revenue and profit generated by Pfizer during covid, is it possible the company also contributed to make sure their vaccine was pushed during the pandemic?
Well, this seems to be obvious. Apparently, as reported recently in a Substack piece, Pfizer made donations lobbying around the country to push for vaccine mandates and the use of their covid jab. Pfizer “doled” out money throughout the United States to consumer groups, doctors, medical groups, civil rights organizations and public health organizations. Many of the organizations never disclosed the “donations” they got from the pharmaceutical giant while they were advocating for vaccine mandates.
While staying in the background, Pfizer was able to get widespread support from public officials to make their covid vaccine one of the most profitable medicines in history. The company generated over $36.7 billion in revenue from the shot. The mandates pushed by cities during the pandemic resulted in the loss of jobs for municipal workers for their refusal to take the vaccine.
Pfizer did their best to maintain excellent public relations by going as far as offering their anti-viral drug Paxlovid for free on the streets of New York, despite the medication’s “rebound effect”.
TrialSite documented during the pandemic how Pfizer used adhesion contracts to exploit and capitalize on the pandemic, thanks to the investigative reporting of Public Citizen and Pfizer’s Power.
We learned via the ICAM protocol that the pharmaceutical company used contracts to block the use of repurposed drugs in whole health systems early in the pandemic. Meaning the company contractually bound health systems if they sought to access the Pfizer covid vaccine and Paxlovid clinical trials.
Despite all the scandals, the company, as well as other giants in Big Pharma, continue to wield their position, networks, capital and power to advance their own growth and mainly profits.
yogaesoteric
February 2, 2025