Kickbacks judge to Novartis: Hand over the info on those 79,000 'sham' events

Fierce Pharma -------- A U.S. judge has ordered Novartis to do something it’s been trying for a year to avoid: Hand over documents on 79,236 educational events the company says it held with doctors. Federal prosecutors claim those events were shams. They call them “kickbacks” instead. The government alleges that Novartis invited the same doctors to speaker events over and over, treating them to lavish dinners at Nobu and Smith & Wollensky—and gatherings at Hooters—in return for prescribing more Novartis meds. In a legal drama on TV, this is when we would see a montage of photocopying and stacking, and a final shot of hand trucks delivering box upon box of documents. The whistleblower in the case, former Novartis sales rep Oswald Bilotta, might shake hands or high-five with the Justice Department lawyers accepting the delivery. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.