{"id":186551,"date":"2025-02-02T15:24:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T15:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=186551"},"modified":"2025-02-02T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T15:24:58","slug":"pfizer-to-pay-nearly-60-million-in-doctor-kickback-scheme-is-this-a-common-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/pfizer-to-pay-nearly-60-million-in-doctor-kickback-scheme-is-this-a-common-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Pfizer to Pay Nearly $60 Million in Doctor Kickback Scheme. Is This a Common Practice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pfizer Moves for Money<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is slated to pay nearly $60 million in fines as a resolution to accusations<\/a> a company it acquired paid kickbacks to doctors specifically to prescribe a migraine medication. The medication marketed as Nurtec ODT<\/em>, also known as Rimegepant<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pfizer acquired Biohaven in October of 2022. \u201cThe 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<\/em>,\u201d a Pfizer spokesperson said. \u201cWe are pleased to put this legacy matter behind us so that we can continue to focus on the needs of patients<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paying Doctors \/ Medicare Fraud<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege the kickback scheme involved Biohaven providing doctors with \u201cimproper remuneration<\/em>\u201d in the form of speaker payments as well as high-end meals at expensive restaurants to get the physicians to prescribe Nurtec<\/em>. As reported<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, 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 \u201cimproper financial incentives<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department issued a statement<\/a> saying, \u201cThrough this settlement and others, the government has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring that drug companies do not use kickbacks to influence physician prescribing<\/em>,\u201d said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division. \u201cThe department will use every tool at its disposal to prevent pharmaceutical manufacturers from undermining the objectivity of treatment decisions by health care providers<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kickbacks stopped when Pfizer ended Biohaven\u2019s Nurtec<\/em> speaker program. However, there is a lingering question: whether this is the only instance of doctors receiving payment to prescribe a particular medication.<\/p>\n

Pandemic Payoffs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the amount of revenue and profit generated by Pfizer<\/a> during covid, is it possible the company also contributed to make sure their vaccine was pushed during the pandemic?<\/p>\n

Well, this seems to be obvious. Apparently, as reported recently in a Substack<\/em> piece, Pfizer made donations<\/a> lobbying around the country to push for vaccine mandates and the use of their covid jab. Pfizer \u201cdoled\u201d 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 \u201cdonations\u201d they got from the pharmaceutical giant while they were advocating for vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Pfizer did their best to maintain excellent public relations by going as far as offering their anti-viral drug Paxlovid<\/em><\/a> for free on the streets of New York, despite the medication\u2019s \u201crebound effect<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

TrialSite <\/em>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\u2019s Power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We learned via the ICAM protocol<\/a> 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<\/em> clinical trials.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nFebruary 2, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1096],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censored-news-health-5127-en-censored-sensational-news-3480-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186555,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186551\/revisions\/186555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}