In her latest article for Forbes.com, Phillips & Cohen partner Erika Kelton analyzes how pharmaceutical companies manipulate doctors and trick patients with misleading claims in order to boost sales of their drugs, and discusses how to address deceptive off-label marketing:
Reckitt Benckiser Group’s $1.4 billion settlement with US authorities last week is another reminder that pharmaceutical companies continue to put profits over patients. The fact that this case concerns powerful and addictive opioids makes it all the more appalling.
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The Reckitt settlement rightfully places much of the responsibility for the opioid epidemic where it belongs, on the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and market opioids.
But for the families that have been devastated as a result of misleading, marketing statements by opioid manufacturers, this settlement – though substantial – is still inadequate.
Financial settlements alone do not have a sufficient deterrent effect to really stop this kind of misconduct in the pharmaceutical industry. As a general matter, people need to be held personally accountable through the threat of incarceration and clawbacks of executives’ compensation and bonuses.
Read the entire article, ‘What Reckitt’s $1.4 Billion Settlement Says About The Pharma Industry,’ on Forbes.com.