Novartis: Cash Bribes Paid to Doctors to Prescribe Drugs

July 9th, 2020

Via: Daily Mail:

A whistleblower who wore a wire to record evidence of doctors taking cash bribes from a Swiss pharmaceutical giant to prescribe their drugs could now be rewarded with $75 million, following the conclusion of a $628 million settlement.

Oswald Bilotta told NBC News how he thought he’d landed his dream job when he was employed as a sales representative for Novatis Pharmaceuticals in 1999, but quickly the proverbial rose-tinted lenses lost their gleam.

Just over a decade later, Bilotta would play a central role in a huge federal investigation into kickbacks at Novatis, wearing a wire for prosecutors to prove doctors were accepting cash bribes from the firm.

His years-long effort to lift the lid on the kickback scheme finally paid off on July 1.

The Justice Department announced a $678 million settlement with the pharmaceutical company over improper inducements it made to doctors to prescribe 10 of the company’s drugs, including the anti-hypertension drug Lotrel.

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