Saturday, July 27, 2013

AstraZeneca, GSK, and The Pharmaceutical Industry Crime Syndicate - Criminal Bribery, Sex, Drugs, & Fun Times in China...


                                      Hat Tip to pharmagossip for (edited) image
                          
AstraZeneca, GSK, and The Pharmaceutical Industry Crime Syndicate - Criminal Bribery, Sex, Drugs, & Fun Times in China...

As if the latest information and news comes as any surprise to anyone with these TOO BIG TO FAIL, TOO BIG TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE pharmaceutical corporate giants...remember all those CIA's (corporate integrity agreements), the meaningless token fines, the ghost writing, the hidden information, crimes, and lawsuits...the shallow apologies...When it comes to money & profits it all means absolutely nothing...read & weep as you peruse the following articles...


"Police also detained two members of AstraZeneca's Chinese staff for questioning on Tuesday. The employees in Astra's main Shanghai sales centre are line managers of an Astra sales representative detained on Friday.
An Astra spokeswoman said one of the managers was "continuing to assist the [Shanghai public security] bureau with their inquiries". She said there was "no reason to believe [the arrest] is related to other investigations".
Meanwhile, four more western drug companies – Sanofi, Novartis, Merck and Roche – said they had used the same travel agency that GSK allegedly used to funnel bribes to doctors. All four companies said they had stopped using the Shanghai Linjiang agency."


 "The woman, named as Ms Wang, said “some executives gave clear directives to the sales department to offer bribes to doctors with money or opportunities to attend academic conferences.”
Ms Wang said she would even go so far as fulfilling some doctors’ “sexual desires” in order to “meet their needs” and persuade them to prescribe more drugs.
A doctor from a “reputable hospital” whose real name was not given, claimed that one GSK representative had “blatantly offered kickbacks to doctors”. 

And at The 1 Boring Old Man Blog the conversation is already getting hot hot hot with new post an-irreducible-conflict and more-china

"The industry thrives by relying on irrational exuberance, well designed illusion, and a dash or two of crime. And they can’t seem to stop…"

Also, over at Pharmalot  bribes-sex-fraud-did-glaxo-violate-its-corporate-integrity-agreement

 "A violation could lead the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to seek to exclude the drugmaker from contracts with federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. This is big business, of course, and so any whiff of trouble that could impact the CIA has investors on alert.

On a conference call this morning to discuss the latest earnings, Glaxo ceo Andrew Witty was asked whether Glaxo staff believe the scandals in China would have an effect on the CIA, since it is known that US authorities are probing the drugmaker for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (this is the law) and the UK's Serious Fraud Office is also conducting a probe. Witty, however, breezed past the question without offering a response."

 Some back story here --> astrazeneca-seroquel-marketing 


                                                      Image via the world renowned PharmaGiles