1 Boring Old Man

Fool Me Twice? – Boehringer Ingelheim, Medtronic Settle Lawsuits Alleging Deceptive Marketing

Healthcare Renewal

by Roy Poses

June 3, 2014

… Per the New York Times, Boehringer Ingelheim executives continued to maintain:

 …that it stood behind the safety and efficacy of Pradaxa and continued to believe that the lawsuits lacked merit, but that settling the case allowed the company to move on. ‘Time and again, the benefits and safety of Pradaxa have been confirmed,’ said Desiree Ralls-Morrison, senior vice president and general counsel of Boehringer Ingelheim USA.

This is typical of most legal settlements involving large health care organizations, whether they end lawsuits brought by private parties or by the US government.  The settlements often allow the parties to continue to disagree, do not establish guilt or innocence, but leave one to wonder why executives would pay so much of admittedly other peoples’ money just to "move on" without upholding their or their companies’ honor, especially when documents revealed and legal findings made in cases prior to settlement remain unchallenged…

… Once again, the settlement did not resolve the allegations.

Medtronic said it did not admit that any of its activities were improper or illegal and that the settlement would bring to a close a long-running review of events dating from 2001 to 2009.

Also,

Asked to comment specifically on the strip club allegations and the accusation that it financially facilitated unnecessary implantations, Medtronic reiterated that its $9.9 million payment was not an admission that it had done anything illegal or improper.

See my comments above.  Why would executives with even the slightest ability to feel shame not contest such allegations if they were untrue?

Summary

These sorts of cases provide evidence that large health care corporations, including not just pharmaceutical companies, but biotechnology and medical device companies, commonly use deceptive and unethical practices to market their products.  Such marketing lets them charge high, even outrageous prices and sometimes results in patients getting expensive treatments that do them no good, or worse, that do more harm than good.  Some of the executives of these companies doubtless got large bonuses, and may have gotten millions in compensation partially because of the sales generated by these practices.  However, they get to walk away from such lawsuits without any personal accountability, just by paying out a few millions, or billions, of the company’s, that is, other peoples’ money.  They get do pay that money without any other explanation that it eliminates distractions and allows them to move on [with whatever they have already made]. The more this goes on, the more health care dysfunction continues, and the more the health care oligarchy prospers.  As we have written many times,

He talks frequently about something called "the anechoic effect." It just means that when something gets exposed, it doesn’t echo – the story gets lost, forgotten, and loses the power it really ought to have [often as a result of the interventions of the exposed]. I guess it’s the opposite of that saying journalists use about a story "having legs" for one that grows bigger by the hour… So Dr. Poses uses Health Care Renewal to keep us focused on stories that didn’t get enough echos to grow any legs…

How does settling a suit create the anechoic effect?
In a settlement, there is no real verdict. No matter what the settlement agreement says, the company always says that they admit to no wrong-doing as above. They never bring it up again themselves. If someone else brings it up, they reiterate the no wrong-doing line and say that they settled to move on [which is, ironically, the truth]. The net result is that they undermine the echo [the verdict].

So, why does the prosecution settle and let the companies walk?
Lots of reasons. A lot of these are whistle blower suits and the whistle blowers want their money [there’s no appeal to a settlement]. The same holds for the lawyers who take such cases on contingency. Whether it’s civil or criminal, settling avoids the lengthy appeal process and gets the case off the books. They all go out and celebrate, ignoring the fact that they’ve played into the hands of the companies.

What can we do about it?
Don’t ask us aging bloggers to tell you how to do your jobs. We’ve defined the problem for you. Put some young hot-shot government lawyers on the case and figure it out. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Make a new law! It takes two to settle – so Stop settling! Do something different!!