WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is accusing Abbott Laboratories of vastly inflating prices of its drugs as part of a fraudulent billing scheme alleged to have cost government health programs more than $175 million.
Abbott bumped up the reported price of the intravenous antibiotic vancomycin as much as 18 times what it charged health care providers, knowing that the Medicare and Medicaid programs would reimburse the providers based on the manufacturer's price, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed Thursday.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of whistle-blower claims against drug manufacturers. Settlements in other cases have totaled more than $3.1 billion in recent years.
Now let's go to the official Abbott web site:
Abbott's Patient Assistance Program is a physician-based referral program that offers free Abbott medicines to low income patients who do not have or do not qualify for prescription drug benefits through private insurance or government funded programs. In 2005, Abbott provided more than 229,000 patients with free medicines valued at $167 million.
Hmmmmm....$175 million in rip-offs and $167 million in free drugs. Quite literally giving with one hand and taking with the other.
3 comments:
Since when has health care been about helping people? This is just capitalism, baby.
Bravo,i applaud your blog!
I took zyprexa which was ineffective for my condition and gave me diabetes.
Zyprexa, which is used for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, accounted for 32% of Eli Lilly's $14.6 billion revenue last year.
Zyprexa is the product name for Olanzapine,it is Lilly's top selling drug.It was approved by the FDA in 1996 ,an 'atypical' antipsychotic a newer class of drugs without the motor side effects of the older Thorazine.Zyprexa has been linked to causing diabetes and pancreatitis.
Did you know that Lilly made nearly $3 billion last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?
Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
I was prescribed Zyprexa from 1996 until 2000.
In early 2000 i was shocked to have an A1C test result of 13.9 (normal is 4-6) I have no history of diabetes in my family.
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Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
You may or may not also be aware of the study published last fall in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that the newer antipsychotics are no more effective, (although 15 times more expensive) than the older meds they were designed to replace. Back when Zyprexa and friends hit the market the medical community was hit with a full scale "It's newer and more expensive and therefore must be better" marketing blitz. Years later the science has finally caught up with the hype, but not until Zyprexa and friends have become a $10 billion dollar a year business for big pharma.
I don't want to minimize the serious side effects that you could run into with the older antipsychotics. Tardive dyskinesia (involuntary muscle movements affecting the face, arms, legs, and trunk) is no fun. But there are people who can't tolerate the diabetes and metabolic disorders caused by Zyprexa and friends that would do just fine on one of the older meds. Unfortunately this blog may be the only place you'll hear this. I've said it before, be careful out there people.
Take a look here for a short story on the New England Journal study if you'd like.
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