{"id":46868,"date":"2014-06-04T08:40:44","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T12:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=46868"},"modified":"2014-06-04T09:09:13","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T13:09:13","slug":"with-no-echo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/04\/with-no-echo\/","title":{"rendered":"with no echo&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"justify\">In Dr. Poses post about recent settlements, I ran across a blurb that I thought deserved special attention [one was a $650 M settlement &#8211; hardly trivial]. It&#8217;s actually about something I&#8217;ve been thinking about in relation to the recent European Medicines Agency U Turn on Data Transparency [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/19\/the-u-turn\/\">the U-Turn&hellip;<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/23\/the-end-game\/\">the end game&hellip;<\/a>,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/25\/a-decision-to-reconsider\/\">a decision to reconsider&hellip;<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/31\/a-crushing-setback\/\" target=\"_blank\">a crushing setback&hellip;<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/01\/something-terribly-wrong\/\">something terribly wrong&hellip;         <\/a>]:       <\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hcrenewal.blogspot.com\/2014\/06\/fool-me-twice-boehringer-ingelheim.html\" target=\"_blank\">Fool Me Twice? &#8211; Boehringer Ingelheim, Medtronic Settle Lawsuits Alleging Deceptive Marketing<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><strong><font color=\"#0000cc\">Healthcare Renewal<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"middle\">by Roy Poses<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"small\">June 3, 2014<\/div>\n<p>         <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/29\/business\/international\/german-drug-company-to-pay-650-million-to-settle-blood-thinner-lawsuits.html\" target=\"_blank\">Per <\/a>the New York Times, Boehringer Ingelheim executives continued to maintain:<\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">\n<ul>\n<div>&nbsp;&#8230;that it stood behind the safety and efficacy of Pradaxa and continued to  believe that the lawsuits lacked merit, but that settling the case <em> allowed the company to move on.<\/em> &#8216;Time and again, the benefits and safety  of Pradaxa have been confirmed,&#8217; said Desiree Ralls-Morrison, senior  vice president and general counsel of Boehringer Ingelheim USA.<\/div>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">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.&nbsp; 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&#8217;  money just to &quot;move on&quot; without upholding their or their companies&#8217;  honor, especially when documents revealed and legal findings made in  cases prior to settlement remain unchallenged&#8230; <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">Dr. Poses says &quot;<em>typical of <font color=\"#200020\">most<\/font> legal settlements involving large health care  organizations,<\/em>&quot; but I think it&#8217;s much closer to &quot;<font color=\"#200020\"><em>all<\/em><\/font>&quot; than &quot;<em><font color=\"#200020\">most<\/font>.<\/em>&quot; And to wit, he adds Medtronic:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">&#8230; Once again, the settlement did not resolve the allegations. <\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Medtronic said it <em>did not admit that any of its activities were improper  or illegal<\/em> and that the settlement would bring to a close a  long-running review of events dating from 2001 to 2009.<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">  Also,<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Asked to comment specifically on the strip club allegations and the  accusation that it financially facilitated unnecessary implantations,  Medtronic<em> reiterated that its $9.9 million payment was not an admission  that it had done anything illegal or improper.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">  See my comments above.&nbsp; Why would executives with even the slightest  ability to feel shame not contest such allegations if they were untrue?<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">Roy concludes:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Summary<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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&#8217;s, that is, other peoples&#8217; money.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; As we have <em>written many  times<\/em>,<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">Another thing Dr. Poses has <em>written many times<\/em> is about something he calls <strong><font color=\"#200020\">the anechoic effect<\/font><\/strong>. Here&#8217;s how I paraphrased it in the past [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/26\/echo-echo-echo-echo-echo-echo\/\">echo <font color=\"#6d543d\">echo<\/font> <font color=\"#8c7461\">echo<\/font> <font color=\"#a99485\">echo<\/font> <font color=\"#c6b4a9\">echo<\/font> <font color=\"#d3d4cd\">echo&hellip;<\/font><\/a>]:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">He talks frequently about something called &quot;<strong><font color=\"#200020\">the anechoic effect<\/font><\/strong>.&quot; It just means that when something gets exposed, it doesn&rsquo;t <em>echo<\/em>  &ndash; 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&rsquo;s the opposite of that saying journalists use about a story &quot;<strong><font color=\"#200020\">having legs<\/font><\/strong>&quot; for one that grows bigger by the hour&#8230; So Dr. Poses uses <strong><font color=\"#0066ff\">Health Care Renewal<\/font><\/strong> to keep us focused on stories that didn&rsquo;t get enough <em>echos<\/em> to grow any <em>legs<\/em>&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">I propose that in this posting about the Boehringer Ingelheim and Medtronic settlements, Dr. Poses has his finger on the pulse of the &quot;why?&quot; of <strong><font color=\"#200020\">the anechoic effect<\/font><\/strong>. How these companies actively make it happen. And how we participate in making it happen. It&#8217;s bigger than just making the CEOs rich, though it certainly does that.   <\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"><em><strong><font color=\"#200020\">How does settling a suit create the anechoic effect?<\/font><\/strong><\/em><br \/>  In a settlement, there is no real verdict. No matter what the settlement agreement says, the company <em>always<\/em> says that they <em>admit to no wrong-doing<\/em> as above. They never bring it up again themselves. If someone else brings it up, they reiterate the <em>no wrong-doing<\/em> line and say that they settled to <em>move on<\/em> [which is, ironically, the truth]. The net result is that they undermine the echo [the verdict].<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><em><strong><font color=\"#200020\">So, why does the prosecution settle and let the companies walk?<\/font><\/strong><\/em><br \/> Lots of reasons. A lot of these are whistle blower suits and the whistle blowers want their money [there&#8217;s no appeal to a settlement]. The same holds for the lawyers who take such cases on contingency. Whether it&#8217;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&#8217;ve played into the hands of the companies.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><em><strong><font color=\"#200020\">What can we do about it?<\/font><\/strong><\/em><br \/>Don&#8217;t ask us aging bloggers to tell you how to do your jobs. We&#8217;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 &#8211; so Stop settling! Do something different!!  <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">I actually believe <strike>I&#8217;m<\/strike> <strike>Dr. Poses is<\/strike> we&#8217;re right about this, by the way. I&#8217;ve been thinking about it because these companies talk like they&#8217;re lily white in their negotiations [like with the EMA], even though they&#8217;re some of the more corrupt entities on the planet. Lily white is how they present themselves, and they maintain that illusion by getting rid of the echos&#8230;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Dr. Poses post about recent settlements, I ran across a blurb that I thought deserved special attention [one was a $650 M settlement &#8211; hardly trivial]. It&#8217;s actually about something I&#8217;ve been thinking about in relation to the recent European Medicines Agency U Turn on Data Transparency [the U-Turn&hellip;, the end game&hellip;,&nbsp;a decision to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46868"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46896,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46868\/revisions\/46896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}