Author Archive

Can You Trust the FDA? maybe…maybe not

September 29th, 2009. By Hunter West

It’s enough to make your blood boil. 

Last week it was revealed that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admitted that it bowed to political influence when it approved a medical device its own scientists had deemed repeatedly as affording little benefit to the patient. 

The name, or indication of the device matters little. Neither does the identity of the manufacturer involved, or the four members of Congress who applied what was described as relentless pressure (read lobbying) to get a product approved. Who they are doesn’t matter. 

What matters are the process, and the loss of principle. 

In a nutshell, a device that was deemed unsafe by FDA scientists because it often failed was approved anyway by the agency. Behind the approval was the relentless lobbying of a handful of Congressmen who represented the state where the manufacturer involved calls home. The Congressmen involved also, according to a September 24^th report in the New York Times (NYT), received political contributions from the executives of the manufacturer involved.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FDA
Posted in Drugs/Medical | No Comments »

Another Whistleblower Movie: A True Story, But Is It Real?

September 22nd, 2009. By Hunter West

The whistleblower has come to the big screen yet again, although the movie starring Matt Damon that debuted Friday—The Informant—was hardly the same story as whistleblower John Kopchinski, whose six-year battle with Pfizer recently ended with a “qui tam” lawsuit settlement of $51.5 million for him.

 

For all his trouble in blowing the whistle on Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre got 9 years in prison. But that’s not just because he worked with the FBI for three years, wearing wires and employing other surveillance devices in an attempt to expose alleged price-fixing of lysine, a food additive. Where Whitacre went wrong was losing his trust in the FBI, and going off the bipolar deep end by abandoning his quest to bring down the company, instead drifting down the embezzlement sinkhole, defrauding  $9 million from his own employer.

 

In the end, the whistleblower did more time for his own misdeeds, than the price-fixing executives he initially sought to expose.

 

In contrast, John Kopchinski had a slightly easier time, and a much bigger reward at the end of his struggle. The former soldier was earning $125,000 a year at Pfizer when he was fired in 2003 after he complained to his superiors about the underhanded marketing tactics the pharmaceutical giant was using to vend its drug Bextra. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: John Kopchinski, Pfizer, Whistleblowers
Posted in Employment | 3 Comments »

In View of Past Misdeeds, Unum is Playing it Smart

September 21st, 2009. By Hunter West

It’s time to give credit where credit is due: for a corporation oft-painted as a villain, Unum Provident is one smart company. 

Unum Provident has been dragged through the mud in recent years over various charges and allegations that the company goes out of its way to deny legitimate disability claims. A claim, after all, is a drag on an insurer’s bottom line. The fewer claims an insurer is required to process, the less money it has to pay out while premium revenue remains a constant. 

Thus, there are basically three ways to improve the performance of an insurance company: sell more policies; reduce the number of claims, or any combination of the two. 

All you hear about are the horror stories from policyholders who have allegedly been cut down at the knees by a seemingly uncaring and unfeeling insurer. However, any corporation will tell you that the road to profitability is paved with cost reductions. There isn’t an insurer worth its’ salt that doesn’t cast a wary eye every time a claim is made against a short-term disability (STD), or long-term disability (LTD) policy. Unum Provident is no different. 

If insurers have been cast as villains, so too are a handful of policyholders who really do try to take advantage and pull a fast one on their insurer by making a claim for disability when they are, indeed quite healthy. 

Be that as it may, Unum Provident—easily a global leader in the provision of insurance products—is doing a lot of things right, in spite of what its critics are saying. You can’t have 11 profitable quarters in a row without some degree of savvy. 

Here’s what Unum Provident is doing well…  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Unum, UnumProvident
Posted in Insurance | 4 Comments »

Why Doesn’t US Take a Harder Stand on Sub-Standard Chinese Exports?

September 15th, 2009. By Hunter West

Anyone who wonders why the US doesn’t clamp down harder on China and some of the sorry, dangerous, unsafe crap they export into this country need only remember that the People’s Republic of China owns 24.07 percent of all the US Treasury Securities held by foreigners (as of January, 2009 source: The US Treasury). 

That’s $739.6 billion dollars. And thus, one might speculate, 739.6 billion reasons why Americans have had to put up with substandard tires, lead in painted toys, counterfeit substances in heparin, anti-freeze in toothpaste, and God-knows-what in toxic Chinese drywall.

It’s criminal, what some families are going through. Especially in this economy, which is still in the doldrums with far too many people out of work, it’s that much harder to realize the great American Dream of home ownership. And once you separate the wheat from the chaff and ferret out those who accepted choking mortgages for palaces and estates their income levels suggest they have no business of Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chinese drywall, Chinese imports
Posted in Defective Products | No Comments »

In the Pharma World, Begging for Forgiveness is Much More Profitable

September 5th, 2009. By Hunter West

Just when, did the medical community begin serving the pharmaceutical industry—instead of the other way around? 

The recent fine levied against Pfizer for various marketing sins involving a handful of prescription drugs may well be the largest ($2.3 billion), and most comprehensive (Pfizer was required to sign an agreement of conduct that has been described as being the most stringent in history)—but it is by no means the first such case. Pharmaceutical companies have for years been bending the rules and circumventing regulations by promoting drugs off label (that’s illegal), and other unsavory activities, all in the quest for the mighty greenback. 

Doctors have been lavished with gifts in exchange for prescribing someone’s drug. They accept ‘consulting fees’ from pharmaceuticals in exchange for lecturing, in their own words mind you, on the benefits of a particular drug. It’s all perfectly legal, but it shouldn’t be. 

And that’s one of the many wrongs percolating in a health care system that’s severely broken and in need of overhaul. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Pharma, Pfizer
Posted in Drugs/Medical | No Comments »