What is our government doing about Pharmaceutical Fraud committed by national and multi-national drug companies?
Unfortunately, not enough. The pharmaceutical industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past three decades, and it has become accustomed to influencing the government into relaxing its standards for enforcement of basic pharmaceutical marketing practice laws. They have arguably the strongest lobby in the business world: there are more lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies than there are members of Congress. The biggest companies are represented by large Washington D.C. law firms which often hire regulatory experts directly from the very agencies that are supposed to be protecting the consumer. Recently, in large part due to public pressure as well as pressure from some members of Congress, outgoing HHS Inspector General Janet Rehnquist announced Compliance Guidelines for pharmaceutical marketing and promotional practices. Many of the prohibited practices have been accepted practices in the pharmaceutical industry, it will be interesting to see how enforcement proceeds.
Related Questions
- If the rogue Internet pharmacies are so bad/dangerous why isn anyone (the government, search engines, pharmaceutical companies) doing anything about it?
- What is our government doing about Pharmaceutical Fraud committed by national and multi-national drug companies?
- How do multi-national drug companies control the Philippine pharmaceutical market?
