UK drug company Glaxo 'paid bribes to Polish doctors'
5 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26970873[/url]
[quote]UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline is facing a criminal investigation in Poland for allegedly bribing doctors, BBC Panorama has discovered.
Eleven doctors and a GSK regional manager have been charged over alleged corruption between 2010 and 2012.
A former sales rep said doctors were paid to promote GSK's asthma drug Seretide.
The company said one employee had been disciplined and it was co-operating with investigations.
If the allegations are proved, GSK may have violated both the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is illegal for companies based in either country to bribe government employees abroad.
'Financial gains' A former sales rep for GSK in the Polish region of Lodz, Jarek Wisniewski, said: "There is a simple equation," he said. "We pay doctors, they give us prescriptions. We don't pay doctors, we don't see prescriptions for our drugs.
"We cannot go to doctors and say to them, 'I need 20 more prescriptions'. So we prepare an agreement for them to give a talk to patients, we pay £100, but we expect more than 100 prescriptions for this drug.
"It's a bribe," Mr Wisniewski said, confirming that although on paper the payments were for educational services, the doctors understood very clearly that they must produce a certain number of prescriptions in return.
...[/quote]
So that means the conspiracy theorist were right about pharmaceutical companies being evil corporations that bribe our government are probably true in some regards? :v:
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;44543356]So that means the conspiracy theorist were right about pharmaceutical companies being evil corporations that bribe our government are probably true in some regards? :v:[/QUOTE]Tbh they're about as dirty as other enormous multinational corporations that think they can get away with stuff. But just like how Halliburton being corrupt doesn't mean their oil is entirely fake stuff that'll cause your car engine to explode, pharmaceutical companies bribing doesn't automatically mean their products cause autism. It does mean some heads need to roll, though.
[editline]14th April 2014[/editline]
Then there's the matter of whether it's endemic to the way the corporation is being run, or if it's e.g. individual unscrupulous salespeople looking to boost their performance.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;44543356]So that means the conspiracy theorist were right about pharmaceutical companies being evil corporations that bribe our government are probably true in some regards? :v:[/QUOTE]
Do they sell everything way over the price of both R&D behind it and production costs? Without a lightest doubt.
Do they hinder development of cheaper, safer, and more effective drugs in sake of being able to sell the more profitable ones? Probably quite a bit.
Do they sell drugs that give kids autism, turn you into zombies, and make you forget? Probably not.
(think about it for a second, autism and zombies aren't profitable)
I thought this was standard practice in the medical business? At least around here, it's pretty openly discussed and just kind of a fact-of-life.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.